Hospital rant - AIBU that this is not acceptable

[Tiredandfedup12]

DC has a life threatening illness that requires 24 hour care - daily iV and iV meds as well as other meds.
we were admitted to hospital Friday night and it’s now sunday Night so on our third night.
we are STILL waiting for her medications to be prescribed - her daily usual medications.
I have chased and chased. Nurse has just come in to say that it now won’t be done again tonight.
AIBU that this is ridiculous ?

Hi OP, hospital Director here. This is outrageous. It's Monday morning now so all staff are back in work. Demand to see her named consultant who is over her current stay TODAY. Tell them what's been going on. They are ultimately responsible for her care and will resolve it

My partner has just had major abdominal surgery and the catalogue of failures is awful! So many issues with medications and if I hadn’t been with her through the day she wouldn’t have been given any. She’s also been sent home without any prescribed pain relief despite being told multiple times she would be!

This is so poor isn't it?

Are you at the same hospital that her regular paediatrician/consultant/whoever she's under is at? If so I'd be on to their secretary as well as PALS

Get onto PALS asap. This is beyond ridiculous. A missed dose during the admission chaos I can understand but this long is appalling.

I've just had a pacemaker implantation. In rising rank order, I was asked by 5 different people armed with clipboards about allergies...I clearly told them penicillin/anaphylaxis...duly noted, even by the cardiologist himself. Guess which AB went in to my IV line...eagle-eyed nurse clocked it, hastily scattering staff before anything happened. I nearly died last time I was accidentally given penicillin...
OP, I hope all goes well for you and your DC.

This is really strange OP, I cannot understand it ( I have worked on numerous peadiatric wards) all I can think it that they are covered by a nurse practitioner overnight/ weekends who doesn't have the competencies to prescribe these meds ( controlled meds ?). This is particularly likely to be the case if as you say it is a specialist hospital.

I hope your Dd is ok, is it alright for her to miss her meds in this way ?

This is ridiculous.

Hospitals are a 24/7 business! Doctors are always available! Speak to whoever is in charge/Matron/nurse unit manager and absolutely insist on a doctor coming to see your DC.

You need to find out what meds DD is on now, if there’s an interaction with the normal meds, or if this is a new drug regime.

Nurse is correct in what she says. She will lose her job, possibly her registration, if she gives meds that are charted.

Regardless, you need to know what’s going in re: meds and I’m pretty sure that the nurse can read, so therefore she should read the notes and possibly feedback to you (I say possibly as she has to work within her scope of practice).

I had a c-section last year, got released in the morning but couldn’t leave without the blood thinning injections I had to take at home. I sat there until 20.00, hour after hour they told me they were waiting on the pharmacy. I wasn’t allowed to go downstairs to the pharmacy myself, the head nurse/midwife on duty got really nasty with me whenever I asked what was going on.. It was horrendous, my newborn baby was so cold and unhappy, I was crying too. In the end finally a ward manager came around and I lost my shit to her. The medication was miraculously found and I was able to go home within 30 mins.
Its awful.

Sympathies but that is hardly comparable, waiting on hospital phrmacy for discharge meds is always a PITA. Why was your newborn freezing ? That seems very strange.

Sadly the squeaky wheel gets the grease I remember asking one hospital if they wanted me dead when they didn't prescribe me my own medication not taking it could kill me and the baby I was carrying my family were shhh shhh i said no consequences I either take my medication OR get really sick and potentially die someone showed up and prescribed me my meds (begrudgingly) but FML you shouldn't have to be like this with people I'm actually nice but I NEED my medication

Hi
sorry still have had 0 sleep !
so she is on nothing that interacts as we have the treatment we come in for regularly.
basically she has a protocol that if she spiked a fever of 38 no matter what reasons sepsis protocol has to be implemented - I’m. Not concerned she has sepsis - she very clearly has a cold but it’s protocol.
we came through a&e as there is no open access.
we got to the ward and was not clerked on the ward ( this is when usually they would talk about meds ) the dr who was on was one we know quite well and sometimes If it’s late they will not Clerk but would prescribe her stuff from the system. So when we wasn’t clerked I assumed this happened but I was wrong. 3 hours later the specialist consultant came for ward round but I had assumed her meds were prescribed.
I haven’t seen a dr since.
when her meds were due I asked if she was going to have them and then was told no because they was not prescribed.
they then chased it for the remainder of the weekend which was not the nurses fault.
the doctors just kept saying we will get around to it but never ever did.
Her consultants are back in the morning so I’m going to raise it as an issue.
update currently though is her meds were prescribed finally after I told bed manager.

OP
Please ask the ward manager to complete a Datix or Ulysses (whatever system they use to report errors) and give you the number of this report to include in your complaint. Reporting means it will be looked into and hopefully lessons learned so that more children are not put in the same position. I would ask for the number of it just to make sure they do report it. It needs to be reviewed.
Hope you can get some sleep soon and that your little one is doing ok.

I wasn’t thinking the 2 were comparable- apologies OP. I was merely pointing out the medication was there, simply put no one could be bothered to actually check. My newborn was freezing as the corridor was freezing, as was I.
That ok for you?

OP knows that but quite rightly is concerned about her child and the impact missing doses is going to have

That's pretty standard. You aren't a priority. Why was your baby cold?!

But this shouldn’t be standard either.

Hi OP.

Is your DC PN-dependent by any chance? Does your DC have a central line?

My DD is and so I can completely understand the scenario you describe and I feel so angry on your and your DC behalf.

I wish I could come and 'sort it' for you. My DD is 15 and has been PN-dependent since a baby and so I have been negotiating these situations for 15 years.

Stay strong and be vocal to everyone who's involved.

I now insist on bringing PN and pumps from home and hooking up as I would at home until they have signed off on the drugs chart and I can see they have some PN.

You are doing a great job, keep going.

Like you say, 3 days in and symptoms not escalating then it is v likely to be a cold-like illness and not a line infection. Can you self-discharge?

Exactly. Just because it's normal to treat patients like shit doesn't mean it's acceptable.

And don't even get me started on how illogical it is to waste beds on people who have been discharged hours and hours ago but can't go home because of administration issues...

If it’s pretty standard to be kept waiting 10 hours with a newborn baby for someone to go downstairs to the pharmacy that’s a disgrace isn’t it.

@mummeeee blood cultures due back today ( they were taking early hours Saturday morning )
and they are very strict on waiting until the 48 hour triggers on the computer which is never actually at 48 hours 🤣

It sounds like it’s been a busy weekend possibly due to sickness/rota gaps and prescribing home meds has been slipping down someone’s list of jobs due to more urgent issues. Or possibly the ward cover person is an ACP/PA without prescribing rights. I’ve seen it happen admittedly not for an entire weekend before.

None of this is your issue, but to try and give some context. Hopefully it will all get sorted this morning.

The NHS has almost completely collapsed in my eyes, even compared to five years ago it seems awful. I feel the issue is largely staff shortages, a lot of people, including myself seem to have gone overseas.

I’ve had this happen on numerous occasions and I now refuse to hand over my meds as the last time I did they went missing (including controlled drugs). I now Just take my own until they’re prescribed and make a note of what I’ve taken at what time.

@mummeeee also that is the bizzare thing the person who clerked her ( didn’t physically see her ) would have has to prescribe iV fluids and her antibitocs.
then today a dr would have had to prescribe her fluids as they had changed.

Oh yes I hear you. You're thinking 48 hours?? It's been about 72.

If CRP is not significantly elevated and blood cultures clear then I'd be asking to go home asap where you can help her recover from the cold by keeping her PN and everything on schedule.

You are doing a great job...and not sure how old your DC is but from my experience it does get easier. Much fewer temp spikes as mine has got older. Only one hospital admission for suspected line infection in the past 8 years or so. (And it turned out not to be line infection)