AIBU to very angry with GP and nurse

[Sunnyday1203]

So dad has dementia and has a memory span for about 10 mins. He recently had a fall and his GP did a home visit and prescribed Pain killers, he was bed bound and lived on his own. He was left with a pack of pills and took 18 Paracetamol l in 12 hours, so ambulance called he refused to go to hospital. (carer found him) His GP knows him well, just can't believe he could be so thoughtless. Fast forward dad now in hospital and turns out he has a fractured Coccyx, he has been in 2 weeks and about to be discharged to a home, I was checking through is bag and found a box of different pills and did not recognise them, so did a bit of research and very very strong meds, on closer inspection these meds are not my dads. If he had taken then thinking they were his he would have died. Nurse said sorry when I questioned here, but really AIBU thinking they are trying to bump him off. I am appalled and worried that this can happen

I don't understand how a nurse put some random pills into his bag?im confused

I don't think they were intentionally trying to bump him off, but it's hard I imagine to strike the right balance between treating someone with Dementia as a patient and person in their own right and also someone who could potentially do themselves damage.

That said, there are doctors who frankly don't understand/care about the condition. There are potentially many similar complaints that don't get reported as the carers/family frankly don't have the time.

My mum has Alzheimers and broke her leg. It was put in a cast and from day one, she walked on the cast and carried her walking frame like a handbag. (including on stairs) At the next 'fracture clinic' appointment, the doctor told her what she had to do, which I promptly said she'd ignore. He told her again, mum yes Yes Dr. I said 'not a chance it'll happen'. He then told us he was going to write in her notes that he'd provided this advice. WTAF does he think that''ll achieve?? I was raging.

The hospitals are very short staffed both in terms of general carers, nurses and Dr. My Mum was in not so long ago with memory/brain issues and we had an utter nightmare esp with meds. Diabetic but if she is not eating she doesn't need so much metformin or it sendds her hyperative and fidgety - this is a known side effect but if we weren't there they would insist on effectively double dosing her and we would have 8 hours of hell keeping her in bed or calm - we ended up doing 24.7 care between us and this helped enormously but they were still prone to leave us to it unless we shouted for help which you felt guilty for given how stretched they were. But it seems to me many in hospital are on a range of meds and often diabetic and medicine and food do not match up which causes chaos. The system is just frankly broken.

Someone has maybe gone home without their meds as well, which is nearly as bad.

Firstly, log a complaint with PALS. This is a serious safeguarding issue, they need to look into their procedures to make sure that medication is given to the correct patient, the nurse may have to be put through extra training.

With regards to the GP, again you should log a complaint with the practice manager, if this is not resolved to your satisfaction then get in touch with your local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Is the care home place permanent? Does he have a named social worker? If he does, get in touch and get them to arrange a care package, the support workers can then support with meds and you can keep them locked away. If he doesn't have a social worker, get in touch with his local social services and get the ball rolling with them, refuse to let him home until they can sort out a package of care.

The GP should and could have easily checked to see if care was in place, they should not have left medication lying about.

Good luck.

The nurse admitted putting them in his bag? That's gross negligence. Please raise a formal complaint, I hope your dad is ok.

I would certainly be making a complaint. If only so that current practice can be reviewed and prevent this from happening again.
Hope you manage to find a suitable home for your father soon.

The GP would not have personally brought a box of paracetamol with him. He'd have prescribed as usual, with usual instructions on how to take them. It sounds like the care arrangements to a safer environment were overdue.

I wonder if you're being given the full story here Op?
Your dad had a serious fall, fracturing part of his back but managed to call out a gp, let him in and take the paracetamol left with him over an 18 hour period without supervision. Where the hell was his carer?

In total contradiction, the hospital say he's not mobile with this injury and can't have picked up another patient's pills.
It all sounds like a confused situation with no communication between his home carer, you or the hcps.

the system is broken frankly This is so true. The NHS is stretched and incapable of coping with elderly care and the huge dementia epidemic now happening. That's why mistakes are happening.

The GP should and could have easily checked to see if care was in place, they should not have left medication lying about.

I don't know any GPs who actually give out the medication though. They usually leave a prescription or pass a prescription to the pharmacy. Unless it was an emergency on-call GP, but you did say they know your Dad.

How did the box get to be in his reach?

Understaffing (thank you, May, Hunt et al) will lead to mistakes. Carers are of variable quality. You'd think blister packs and prompting would sort out some of the potential problems but you can always get caught out. I'm sorry your Dad has been in pain from the fracture and you have additional worries about him now. I hope you find a good placement for him.

The GP was careless, the nurse didn't do it deliberately. He clearly needs to be given his meds by staff and not be left with them, what wrong painkillers was he given. I agree with putting in a complaint to the practice manager and Pals.

Sorry havent rtft but please, please, you need to make a complaint about this. It is utterly unacceptable especially considering why your df was there in the first place. Please, for the next person who doesnt realise, complain.

RideOn occasionally an out of hours doctor will. They do usually leave a prescription but I have known them to leave general meds, even antibiotics before now. A GP could have sent a prescription to the chemist who has delivered them, although not sure about this as the access is not very clear.

Ratarse but if it was the on call/out of hours, who called them and why weren’t they there when they visited? How could this man give a reliable account of the problem? If someone was there, they should’ve put them in the locked cupboard/ wherever they are kept.

OP referred to GP as someone who knows the patient so I am wondering if this was a carer/family problem with medication.

Caring for someone with dementia can be utterly draining, maybe he need 24/7 care?

RideOn I've just read the OP again and not quite sure what was in my mind when I wrote the response, it's like I selectively read it, sorry, Ratarse RTFT!

It was his GP wasn't it, so either carer, family, neighbour, friend or himself phoned. You are right about him not being able to give a reliable account as OP refers to him only retaining information for 10 minutes. With it being his GP, I am surmising that the visit was 'office hours' or just outside of that, in which case that leads me to questioning why this man didn't have a carer going in at bedtime? A 12 hour gap in care for someone so vulnerable doesn't sit right with me, however we can only go off what the OP is telling us here. If the carer had phoned the GP, they should have informed the next of kin and then their office so that someone would be with him. The GP should not have left medication in reach. Also I agree with RideOn, it sounds like his care is inadequate for his needs (going off the OP) and residential care should be looked at now.

I do stand by my comment about reporting the hospital to PALS, this is a safeguarding issue.

I think there is a valid complaint to be made in here somewhere but I agree the account is quite muddled and relies on the father's account of events. There seems to be a breakdown in communications between the OP and his carer. Surely someone was present to call the gp and arrange the home visit after his serious fall? He wasn't mobile afterwards.

Before making allegations about medical staff I think it's really important to be establish the facts. A complaint such as this could have serious implications for the HCPs being accused.

I don’t understand how this chain of events happened? Who called, received, visited the GP, made sure he had his meds and he’d take them etc? If he has 10 min memory span how would he know about the meds? Who was there in this whole time?

Hello all. Just want to clarify some fact, it seems a few people are getting the wrong end of the stick, apologies if I was not clear in my OP. So the GP was called when my dad fell, he lives independently atm, the GP DOES know he lives alone and knows he has dementia. So should have taken steps to make sure he was not left with pills. An ambulance was called again by the carer when he took the overdose but he refused to go into hospital. When I visited the next day and found him bed ridden ( laying in his own filth) I managed to persuade him to go to hospital. Re the cocktail of pills in my dad's bag, the nurse admitted putting them there and apologised and looked very embarrassed. , so I am not confused on not in possession of the fact this is actually what happened. Thank god he did not take them or be given them by the nurse. Shocking really. Oh and re them trying to bump him of it was said tongue in cheek, of course they are not trying to kill him, they are not evil just incompetent.

Sunnyday to clarify further, who were the drugs meant for?

Welsh some other patient with some serious health issues, poor guy has not been getting his meds also. The patients name was in small print that could have been easily missed.

I'm still baffled by what pills the GP might have been carrying in his bag. I don't know anyone who does.

Welsh some other patient with some serious health issues, poor guy has not been getting his meds also. The patients name was in small print that could have been easily missed.

Ah so I did get it right, some other poor patient has lost his meds. to your Father, so the nurse put the someone elses meds in your dads bag. That really is so frightening.

Lady why are you baffled? It is simple GP was called out, prescribed painkillers that were delivered to my dad and left by his side. GP know my dad lives alone and has dementia.

Who delivered the pills to your dad?