To think rationing incontinence pads is outrageous

[FannyCann]

Someone I met this week works as a trustee for a non profit making nursing home for the elderly. She told me the council has recently announced they will only pay for FOUR incontinence pads a day per person.

Some people will go through four in an hour if they are having a messy event.
For a person who is doubly incontinent no way will FOUR be enough per day.

I just feel outraged by this. Wtf are the home meant to do when the FOUR have been used up? Imagine the headlines as relatives arrive to visit and find their elderly loved one sitting in a shocking state as they had gone through their ration several hours earlier. What would the CQC have to say about that?

I understand it must be a significant cost but it is every bit as essential as food or a roof for people who need them. I don't really have a useful suggestion as to where the funds should come from.

However....

I would just like to lock any person responsible for this decision in a room with FOUR pads and say "there you go. I'll give you another four tomorrow." And see how they are a week later.

I don't even know why I'm posting this except perhaps to raise awareness of some of the issues relating to care of the elderly. Because I was utterly shocked by this nugget of information.

This has been the case in varying degrees for years.

For once though it's not actually a social care cut it's a CCG/NHS funding decision.

Adult pads are ridiculously expensive when you consider you can pick up 50 baby nappies for £2.50 in the supermarkets.

As a social worker one of my personal measures of how I view the quality of care in a care home is how they deal with the pads issue. Sadly for some it seems to justify a routine based approach to pad changes (I.e Mary only gets 4 pads so we will change her 4 times a day at set intervals) others buy more pads at the expense of the food or activity budget, dome ask family to 'top up' and very rarely some buy extra pads as part of their ordinary expenses and make slightly less profit.

We had all this when my - now late - mother was in a nursing home in 2012-2014. Her condition meant she had extra provision of incontinence pads, stored in her room, which were routinely stolen by staff to use on other residents. They clearly did not change my mother as often as required. My dad resorted to counting the pads each afternoon and evening and my mother, who was alert, told him how often she had been changed. The pads came from an organisation distinct from the care home who followed the matter up but it was never really solved.

And of course, they wouldn’t have needed to if there had been proper provision for all residents in the first place.

Disabled children in my area are provided with 3 nappies/pads per day, the rest we have to buy

If your child has an EHC Plan, you may be able to get the need for an adequate supply written in to the health section. I heard of someone who took this issue to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal: the school completely backed her up that the amount of pads being supplied was inadequate and the Clinical Commissioning Group backed down when faced with the prospect of having to explain their decisions to a judge.

I’m a nurse in a private care home. Where we are it’s 3 a day.

We have tons of pads so people never go without, but after 3 pads they have to pay. I don’t think it’s right.

Disgusting! Plus it’s neglect.

Worked in care for 6 years now and yeah this is standard. Nobody was ever left in a state but any extra and they had to pay for the rest.

Everyone is assessed for them but the maximum they can have is 3 for 24 hours where I live.

Gonna reiterate, majority of the time (And i’m Gonna generalise) carers won’t leave people who need changing because they’ve gone over 3 pads!

My dd has a life long severe disability, she has pull up incontenence pants with an insert pad, unfortunately our health trust Leicestershire and Rutland don't supply pull ups they only supply huge taped nappy type pads which dd hates and just rips off. Up until the end of last year they supplied the inserts but ended the contract with their suppliers so stopped those so we have to buy all of them which can be up to 8-10 per day which costs us £200 a month every month. In this country people with disabilities aren't afforded basic dignity, and no one apart from their families gives a shit.

Feeling rather stupid now.
Supply has never been an issue in my area of work within the NHS and although I was vaguely aware of issues in the community I hadn't appreciated the extent of the problem and the bald reality of two or four a day.
Thanks for lots of informative posts.
It's a good conversation to have

My son gets 4 pull up nappies supplied a day. He’s severe SEN.
Any extra and I have to buy them.

rosie that’s crap yours doesn’t supply pull ups. My one sends Huggies pull ups but we have just gone into size 7 and it’s a different brand

Normal here (I worked as a home carer)
People who were completely unable to get to the toilet were rationed and it wasn't unusual for people to ask for their pad not to be changed. If they ran out, they had to pay for their own

that’s crap yours doesn’t supply pull ups. My one sends Huggies pull ups but we have just gone into size 7 and it’s a different brand

Our CCG doesn't supply pull-ups either. Our son gets 4 nappies per day, he'll go into the very small adult-size soon which are absolutely huge (there seems to be no happy medium).

Had this problem with my son who uses pads due to disability. Wrote to MP, got supporting letters from doctors due to severe skin breakdown, infection risk and sensory issues and lastly threatened legal action as not meeting his basic needs and got our allowance bumped to 9 a day but know a lot of children at his school who only get 3 to 4 a day. It's really not enough

When I was in labour with my first in 2014 I was discussing various things with midwife (induction drip, epidural - long night lots of chats!!) and one thing was that they had been put on a limit per patient of pads. No concept of some labours being hours others days!!

If it’s England you’re talking about - it’s the NHS NOT the ‘council’! The council/social care does not provide pads.
Agree it’s rubbish but at least identify the right public body!

Yep, my mum has to order in pads and inco pads to top up her 3 a day limit, it’s a bit better now she is catheterised but before she was going through prob 5-7 a day, at a approx cost of £140 a month.
She now has to also pay for some of the things she used to get on prescription eg skin creams and sudocrem.