To complain - or should I just try and forget it?

[FairyF1]

I wold be grateful for your thoughts and apologies in advance if this is too detailed/ rambling (Im exhausted and not thinking straight).

My elderly father is terminally ill. In December his arm was broken by patient transport when he was being brought home from the hospital (he has weekly treatment). The transport company have admitted negligence (amongst other things he was transferred on a weighing machine not a wheelchair) and we are , for the first time ever , pursuing a personal injury claim. My father has been offered £1k and the case is ongoing.

Unfortunately my father ended up being kept in hospital for nearly six months. At the time we were told that it was because the council couldn't find anyone in his area to provide the double handed care the hospital assessed he now needs ( he gets help twice a day which we pay towards). Eventually he was discharged but he was in a really bad way. He was extremely weak and confused ( he had been kept in isolation, in a bed for over 20 hours a day , not helped to the toilet , showered just once etc). in short the standard of his care and treatment fell well below what we have previously experienced - it subsequently transpired that he did not even receive the prescribed treatment for his longstanding condition. This has left him in a really bad way. Now he is home the care package he is receiving is still not sufficient to meet his needs. I often have to pay for additional care or sleep on the floor at night. Despite this the Council still want to cut his existing package. I am struggling to work, help him and look after my family. It has also left us very short of money (savings spent on getting to and from hospital every day whilst he was an inpatient and paying for extra care etc ).

I feel exhausted, very anxious and am not thinking straight. I did try to speak to the hospital about what had happened during and after his discharge but it has been quite tricky. I do understand that they are very short of staff and underfunded and the last thing I want to do is make anything worse. However I do feel that my father wasn't given proper care and we have been left alone to deal with the consequences.

I do feel that things can't just be left as they are. I feel things have been very unjust and am , if I am being honest, annoyed. I don't know if this is fair but it seems as though everyone else has just got on with their lives and we are left in a mess. As a consequence I have been wondering whether I should make a formal complaint about his treatment - to both the council and hospital- in the hope that the issues will be looked into, addressed, and lessons might be learnt so neither he nor anyone else should have such an awful experience again.

Or alternatively should I just leave it and be grateful that he is now home and for all the excellent treatment we had over the years.? I don't want to make already stretched and under resourced services worse but do feel very let down. Am I being too emotional? Any thoughts?

Yes I would make a formal complaint. If for no other reason than to make sure it's all documented and they can't pretend everything is OK. And I think I would be talking to the press too.

Go to the hospitals complaints department. Theyre called PALs. They'll head up the formal complaint on your behalf and conduct any investigation.

This situation sounds like his medical and nursing care fell well below the standards of basic care.

Please complain, because without that the wards will just carry on doing the same thing and wont change their practices.

I say this as a nurse myself.

I would absolutely complain, if you just lay everything out clearly as you have here. Sorry your father and family have all had to deal with this.

Yes you should complain if you feel you feel he has not received the correct care or assessment of his needs.
You said he was in for nearly six months while they assessed his care package? This seems a long time just for that.
It also seems a long time to be without his medication for his long term condition as normally the pharmacy will contact the GP surgery and ask for a transfer of care and to ensure this medication is prescribed and given in hospital. If they haven’t got it, they normally as the family to bring in or give similar.
The hospital should have records on their on going assessments by the physio and occupational therapy etc.
Have you approached the social services since he has been discharged to ask him to be reassessed for his care needs?
Hope you get some answers x

Also sometimes medication may be changed or stopped on admission to hospital as the doctors would review the medication. For example, someone on blood pressure tablets may have them stopped if found to have low blood pressure or if the kidney function is not as good due to dehydration. They may have asked the GP to review it again on discharge. Hope your dad gets back to himself x

If this is about various organisations you can talk to NHS England or the health ombudsman who will investigate for you

This is my line of work and I think yes you have plenty of grounds for an investigation

The way you should see this is that it could trigger a review not only would you get an apology but it could effect some kind of change in the system. I have certainly made changes to my systems when events have happened, to try to learn from them and prevent them happening to someone else