No hospital visitors

[Creamegg84]

I understand "the covid risk" but when are hospitals going to allow visitors again?
My elderly aunt age 94 has been in hospital for 2 weeks Completely alone. She is deaf. None of us can go in and advocate for her. She told a staff member that the family have abandoned her & forgotten about her but we are ringing every day (taking hours to get through aswell) and they aren't telling her that we have called.
Her care home are refusing to have her back and she now needs medical care but the hospital say she's medically fit to be released. She can't even hold her own head up. We have no idea who to speak to or to find out what's happening.

I cannot begin to imagine how many thousands of elderly people are in hospital right now completely alone, with no family there to support them, bed blocking and basically just lying in a hospital bed.

My cousin (age 50) is in intensive care in the same hospital. Had internal bleeding and a stroke 3 weeks ago. Has been in an induced coma, now awake but with tracheostomy. Again no visitors allowed including his wife or mother, and cannot even video call as he can't talk because of the trach. I feel like this is one of the biggest crisis of the pandemic. The damage to mental health caused to vulnerable people in hospital must be huge. My aunt is giving up on life and we have no way to help her

@MrsClatterbuck well, it’s going to be a lot more difficult/expensive with the ending of free tests.

This thread makes me so sad and angry

At some point we need to take a step back and asses quality of life over quantity. We are in danger of trying to prolong life at all costs.

I’m sure many elderly people would rathe have a shorter life in the company of family. I know my own mum feels this way. Over Christmas she said she would still have visited even if we had had covid in the house, as that would have been better than being home alone.

Some awful stories on here. I too am a bit astonished that this is still going on.

My dad (83) had heart surgery a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't have a diagnosis for memory loss but his memory is very unreliable, and after the anaesthetic he was all over the place (ringing me at 6 in the morning thinking it was the evening, saying he'd been in hospital for ten days when he'd been there for one night). No visitors allowed. I know this won't work for everyone but I just invoked well-spoken middle-aged lady privileges - I knew which building and ward he was on so I just walked in, past reception, up to his ward, rang the bell and said I was his carer (despite having no official designation). They let me in without a murmur. Might be worth a go.

Oh and in terms of ringing the ward, I had some success with ringing my dad on his mobile and asking him if there was a member of staff nearby - then getting him to hand the phone to them directly.

I only did this once (they were trying to discharge him without anyone being there to take him home, despite him being less than 24 hours post-surgery and thinking he was in an entirely different part of london to the bit he was actually in - i needed them to keep him on the ward until I could get to the hospital to pick him up.) I'm not advocating tying up nursing staff for no good reason. But it worked. Obviously requires your loved one to be able to use their mobile though.

It must depend on the hospital, my family member is in hospital and we've been allowed to visit during visiting hours. They ask us to do a lat flow and only 1 visitor at the bed at one time, the others can wait just outside the ward. It did only recently change within the last few weeks though. I hope you all get to see your family members soon, it's so hard being outside not able to see/talk to them or the ward to be updated.

@cansu

It is utterly ridiculous that volunteers are going in to help people keep in touch with loved ones when loved ones are being kept out! Outside hospitals people are doing whatever they want and restrictions have more or less disappeared. It is completely wrong to prevent people from having contact with relatives.

Absolutely.

[quote MereDintofPandiculation]@MrsClatterbuck well, it’s going to be a lot more difficult/expensive with the ending of free tests.[/quote]
I know. Tried to order a box this morning but they don't havecany so assume people are stockpiling already. I was given my first box by the home but since then have got them either by ordering online or at the local chemist. My mum is in a home run by the local health Trust so they may give me some but if not I will have to buy them. Surely the staff won't have to oak for lft and they provide the weekly pcr I do so I shouldn't have to oak for that as it is at their instigation as is the lft now I come to think of it so they may provide them