To be in disbelief that this can happen on a public hospital ward?

[JackiePlace]

I'm talking about this horrific story. Surely someone saw something! My heart goes out to this poor lady's family.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/21646082/grandmother-75-bleeds-to-death/

I can fully believe that this sort of thing happens. What we hear about may be just the tip of the iceberg.

My own mother was very ill in hospital over last Christmas and one night a man wandered into her single room in a state of undress and began fumbling around the room and wandering around each side of the bed (fortunately he did not touch my mother, he just looked bewildered apparently). My mother was pressing her alarm repeatedly, but it still took quite some time before two nurses appeared and propelled the man out. It turned out that he was a dementia patient (I think) from another area who had managed to slip away from his minders and gone wandering around.

Fortunately nothing happened to my mother and the man was removed, but I do find it alarming. My mother on the other hand seemed to have no concept at the time of just how much potential danger she could have been in and thought it funny.

I am going in for major surgery at a different NHS hospital fairly soon and this doesn't fill me with confidence. I know I will be in the ICU straight afterward and then in a busy and 'secure' ward (carded entrance and exit on the main doors), but there isn't much I can do about it in any case I suppose.

@MarshaMelrose are you thinking it's been brought up again now as part of the Tories' plan to discredit the NHS?

Many years ago I was recovering from a mastectomy and was on a female only bay . However the ward was mixed and in one bay an old lady of about 80+ was shreiking that she was being attacked. When the nurse came she was on her own in her own bed. None of the other patients offered any information and the nurse went away.
This happened 3 times with the nurse getting nore annoyed each time. On the 4th time another nurse coming on to the ward caught an elderly man trying to strangle the old lady . Turned out that he had dementia and thought he was fighting a soldier . He had been wiley enough to scarper back to his bed in the same bay each time though.

The man was moved to a more secure ward and I and others in our bay befriended the lady and sat with her every day until we were discharged. She had had an interesting life and was great company so it was a good outcome in the end.

Didnt change the policy on mixed wards though no matter how many of us complained.

Fucking hell

What??!!! Why would they do that? Why do they want to discredit the nhs?Why would you think that? I can't even begin to understand your reasoning on that.

I posted with an update on this. A man was found guilty last month of several sexual assaults on co-workers. He had been arrested on the murder as well but obviously the police either couldn't make that stick or they cleared him. Obviously with his conviction out of the way, the police have appealed on crimestoppers to kick-start the investigation into the murder.

There's no conspiracy by anyone. Just police procedure. Blackpool Victoria is not the greatest hospital.

You'll be very safe on ICU. They're usually big rooms with 1 staff for 2 people watching you all the time. It's incredibly rare for anything like this to happen. I hope your operation goes smoothly.

That case was in Arizona and her rapist was a staff member,

There was a horrible case recently in the UK where a severely disabled and non verbal woman in full time care contracted HIV. They knew she was a virgin on X date as a Dr had examined her and she had an intact hymen. They found the only way she could have been infected was through sex but they had no idea when the virus had been contracted or who had passed it on to her.

It seems like sexual abuse of very vulnerable women and girls is shockingly common.

Horrific

That is so horrible, poor lady.

Last time my mother was in she was mumbling about drug dealers being there (under sedation), she wasn't making much sense so I just said "what?"

But when she'd come around she said some man was going around the ward offering skunk. It's not what you'd expect in a hospital.

If there are a few different bays in the ward then the nurses were probably in other bays whike this happened. You have to remember how understaffed wards are, they don't have enough nurses/nursing assistants to be staffing all bays in the ward. It's not right but unfortunately staff numbers are decreasing at a rapid rate because of pay and conditions.

I worked in a psychiatric hospital, old style Victorian type with large grounds, we regularly had dealers coming onto the grounds to sell to In-patients. Sadly I’ve known a few instances of assault of women in mental health settings by male patients.In acute hospitals themselves not unusual to have issues for eg.with mixed sex wards and dementia patients ,particularly at night when people often get more confused.

Get over yourself

I can well believe it could happen. I had day case surgery under a local anaesthetic last week and was left on a surgical ward bay afterwards, on my own, for four hours. I felt so vulnerable. I was the only one in the six bed bay, right in the corner, at the very far end of the ward. The entrance to the bay was a single door, just wide enough for a bed. My bed was not visible from the corridor. There were plenty of visitors within the ward, walking past the door. At one point a man came in looking for his wife. There would have been ample opportunity.

It is disgusting that this poor lady had this happen and I can we'll see how it did. My heart goes out to her family.

That is horrific, I hope whoever committed this disgusting crime is brought to justice.

Thank you for the reassurance.

My reasoning on my first point is that the Tories have apparently been trying to run the NHS into the ground and eroding people's confidence in it is another tactic for doing that.

And I especially looked for a link other than the Daily Mail, just for Mumsnet!

My reasoning on my first point is that the Tories have apparently been trying to run the NHS into the ground and eroding people's confidence in it is another tactic for doing that.

Yeah, I hear peoole saying that. But why would they be spending £152 billion because they want to run it into the ground? I can't see how that works myself. And I think how the nhs organised treatment over covid might have had something to do with erosion of trust. (Although, personally our GPs were good over covid so I can't complain.)

But, really, ICU is very safe. And these things are rare. The fact that the police are still on this 5 years later shows how rare it actually is. You'll be fine. Blackpool Victoria doesn't have a great reputation, but my mum actually went into there for a few days during covid. She has dementia. They were brilliant with her and she talked about it being a hotel. She loved it! So it's not all bad there.

Hope you're back feeling right soon. x

This is beyond horrific. Poor lady. And her poor family.

Security is one of the things that can get compromised when nurses are stretched too thin and someone so inclined can then take advantage.

Thank you for everything you do Battlecat98 . It's appalling that you are so under resourced.

I've never heard of CCTV on wards.

My friend asked to be moved to her own room from the prem babies mums ward because partners were bringing in drugs and actual drug deals were going on in the ward during visiting hours.

Very scary for your poor mum

They also said on Crimewatch that they only realised the rape had occurred at the postmortem

Do you know what episode it was on , on Crimewatch? I cant find it @Toddlerteaplease

Police have said there is no connection (maybe they have DNA evidence?). So yes there must be at least two. It sounds as though Puno's crimes came to light during that investigation. Police are also investigating alleged poisonings on the Stroke Ward too!

Don't be an arsehole dearie, it doesn't suit you. Many people, myself included, choose to boycott that particular publication and with damn good reason. JFT97.

Walk in wearing your uniform, or looking purposeful.

Pull the curtain around a patient who has no speech for whatever reason.

Assault her.

Pull curtain back a bit.

Leave.