Hospital want discharge and just told DM has Covid

[Lorrymum]

My DM went into hospital on Christmas Eve. She had fallen but fortunately no broken bones. However X-rays showed historic fractures and she also has digestion issues and dementia. She has gone from being fairly mobile to not being able to walk. Today we were told she now has covid.
Hospital are very keen to send her home and we have (sister and I) spoken to various people in hospital all with different opinions. We have now been told she will be home on Saturday. We are not convinced that she is well enough but hospital feel that she will cope if she sleeps downstairs with a commode and carers visiting twice daily. We have to arrange both a commode and for a suitable bed to be installed but haven't a clue who to contact or how this can all be done before Saturday.
Do elderly people still require proper care plan before discharge? This all feels rushed and not properly thought through.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've lost both my DP now, but I remember having this discharge issue with my mother, having to drop everything, scoop up my dad as NOK (I had the POA) and present ourselves at mums ward asking to speak to the most senior person on duty. The social worker had left me a voicemail saying mum would be discharged home the following day. Mum was well past the point of coming home (dementia and frailty), thankfully the nurse agreed and mum stayed on the ward until a bed based reablement place came up a week or so later. We got her into a nursing home after that where she lived happily (and safely) until she died about18 months later.
I remember I had to dig deep and become very cold, hard and objective with these people to achieve a satisfactory outcome for my parents. Dad was in his 90's and physically not able to look after mum, and not quick witted enough to advocate for her. I appreciate the hospital wants their bed back for another patient but the stunts that social worker tried to pull to get mum out of there were horrific.

I can only imagine 4 years on how much harder it must be.

Oh goodness, I'm so sorry for your DM and you and your sister.
It brings back memories of my dad's discharge when I told the Social Worker he should not be going home with 4 carer visits a day, and told her he would be back in hospital in a week. ( He had insisted to them that I visited daily- I lived 180 miles away and worked full time and 2 schoolage children!) She told me I was wrong about my visits (!) and that I was "unduly pessamistic"
I confess I was wrong.
He was readmitted in 4 days and when discharged again it was to a Nursing Home as he was too infirm for a residential home.

She was discharged at 5.30pm NYE and fell yesterday. Apparently she was to be assessed by carers at home. The carers are not OT staff so what qualifies them to assess is beyond me. Hospital didn't even provide us with a contact number or name of care agency. They even sent Mum home with another patients belongings as well as her own.

That's truly shocking @Lorrymum

I hope you complain through PALS.

Oh no, is your mum ok? Is she back in hospital?

Her own home with carers is obviously not the right choice for her. It sounds like she may need either a live in carer or a residential home.

Your poor mum. I gently suggested she needs to be in a care home and it sounds like now this is the only sensible option. Are there any nearby with spaces that could take her once the hospital treatment is complete? She simply isn’t safe to be on her own for any length of time.

So sorry, that is shocking. Is she back in hospital now? Agree with complaint via PALS about an unsafe discharge and disregard for patient safety. Falls prevention is an important consideration in discharge.

The only level of care that has this is a nursing home, carers 4x a day aren’t there to do everything and it’s assumed the family will sort food shopping and finances and general house management / cleaning the house etc. If the person has no capacity to sort or arrange this then it’s a care home. 4x a day are to wash or medicate or move to a chair for the day in a diaper etc.

Sorry to hear that @Lorrymum

weneedmorefairylights that's my point. Refusal of family to do anything thus resulting in a move to a care home is often the only way to avoid a crisis or re admission like this.
The situation is sadly predictable and being replicated by the thousand up and down the country.
I hope your mum recovers well OP.

i'm so sorry to hear this....exactly what I said was the risk of hurried discharges about 12 posts before your update! sending a virtual handhold to you all.

Sorry to hear about her hip. Problem is that prolonged stays in hospital mean that people decondition fast & never walk again. Stay in hospital can be a very bad choice. There weren't great options in many cases.

Have you read the whole post?

I'm sorry you're going through this.

I went through this with my mother. They had the Occupational Therapist assess my mum first in order to put a discharge plan in place. They ordered equipment to be delivered to her home and the local authority arranged for her to have initial care visits over a period of weeks to understand her needs.

They shouldn't send your mum home without providing her with the necessary support and care plan.

They wont make it a priority if they think there is family around to support.

Im surprised they're not looking at sending her to rehabilitation hospital in the interim.

It's a tricky one as hospitals are the worst place to picking up bugs , but on the other hand she shouldn't be sent home until it's safe for her.

Keep a folder of notes of conversations and names, her medication and an overview of what has happened. Makes it easier for everyone if she ends up back in hospital.

Don't be fobbed off and contact social care if they haven't already been in touch.

Best of luck

I read all of OP's posts. She didn't want her mom discharged at all, least of all with poor home support. I recognise that the home support provided was poor.

I'm suspecting so saying that staying in hospital had its own hazards. Seems like where OP's mom caught covid, actually. Anyway, it was a lousy situation without any great way forward. It is good that people are upset because they are so sure that a better outcome was possible, that better care could have been obtained.

I'm really sorry to hear that she was admitted again

@lljkk

Apologies, I missed the op's update where it said about the broken hip. I was then confused about your reply.

It seems I was the one who had not read the whole thing 🙈

I'm sorry OP. You are right, it's just not good enough. And people like your mum shouldn't have to suffer. I've worked in the NHS for 20 years, it's never been as bad as this. Take a look at PALS (and I don't say that lightly in your case).

Christ sounds awful, your poor mum. I hope she heals quickly and can be sent home properly cared for

I'm so sorry. A friend's mum with mild dementia was sent home alone at 11pm in a taxi on Friday and fell before the first carers were coming in the morning. Family were told she was going via ambulance the next day. Absolutely dreadful and reflective of the critical incident status of that Trust and systemic pressure to prioritise patient flow above safety.