Elderly mum has been moved onto a ward with a known COVID outbreak.

[JustJane73]

My poor mum is 82. She has advancing Alzheimer's, breast cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis. Three weeks ago she fell in her garden and fractured her neck. She has been in hospital ever since.

Her fracture is actually healing well (along with all her other less serious injuries) but she has gone downhill with her dementia since being in hospital. We were told last week mum is medically fit for discharge but as she needs a special bed delivered to her home and a care package put in place this has held everything back. We have been desperate to get her home and back to her own surroundings.

The bed, commode and walking frame is being delivered tomorrow and we have been told that she should be discharged on Friday - yay!

We ( dad, my sister and I) have been visiting every afternoon. She has been on the same orthopaedic ward all this time. I rang them this morning to ask a question only to be told that she was moved overnight to a discharge ward as they needed mum's bed for a new with a broken hip.
Fine, no issues except dad and I visited this ward today only to discover it's closed due to a COVID outbreak. We had to mask up and ring for the nurse to let us in.

I asked the nurse if mum had been moved into the ward with them knowing the outbreak had occured and they said yes. I said that I was not happy about that and what are the chances of mum catching it. They were very blaze about it all (although they are all wearing masks) and said three patients had COVID, one was better, one had been discharged and the other is in separate room and not much more they can do.

I'm on edge now, we have come so far and near to mums discharge, I will be absolutely gutted if she gets COVID especially as she is so frail from 3 weeks laying in a bed. It's been a nightmare from start to finish. I could weep.

I really hope your mum is okay and doesn't catch Covid. Having had a recent encounter with NHS wards for the elderly you have my absolute sympathy. My observations were things move at a glacial pace, patients get more and more confused and immobile, either get catheters fitted or put in adult nappies as nobody is around to help them walk to the toilet, and any patient that gets out in less than 3 weeks is either very lucky or has a really annoying, obnoxious wife who can't stand seeing her husband fading away while "they" plan to have their multi agency meetings. They certainly weren't keeping my husband safe in their care.

Thank you Soluckyinlove
Sorry to hear your DH had a bad experience in hospital too.

Its heartbreaking seeing all these frail, very elderly patients in hospital being ignored. The poor old lady next to my mum looks so poorly, she was crying the whole 4 hours I sat with mum, the nurses just walked passed her each time. She kept saying she was scared. I talked to her to let her know someone was listening to her. It must be so disconcerting for my mum because she doesn't understand what is going on. She was settled in the other ward

I've expressed my concerns about mum's deteriorating dementia since she's been in hospital and that I've not been at all happy they've allowed her to toilet in the bed and simply clean her up afterwards. I've explained they've made our lives so much harder for when mum gets home but they just blame the dementia and said it's inevitable. Mum was fully continent before being admitted, it wasn't inevitable at all.

If she gets COVID and has to stay longer I think we'll all have a breakdown, we are so near to her coming home, it's been such a long three weeks. I'll just have to hope and pray.

Crossing my fingers for your mum. One more day.

Some good news (hopefully), I made a bit of a fuss to the discharge team this morning (I never complain usually so not my normal style) and have just had a call to say mum will be discharged at 3pm today. Thank goodness, it has been a very long 3 weeks.

Fingers crossed for you.🤞

It's a shit show OP and no one cares, like talking to a brick wall. Hoping your mum is discharged today.

I am sorry that you’ve experienced this but it’s made me recall some advice a (now retired) female GP gave me a number of years ago. She told me to never leave a loved one alone in hospital if at all possible, to fight every step of the way for them and be their eyes and ears. She had a terrible experience with her husband being in hospital although she never said what but it was clearly enough to forewarn me that I should never sit back and relax whilst a loved one was being treated in hospital. Now, with the passing of a number of years and people inevitably getting older, I’m increasingly finding myself remembering what the GP said and so often I do find that medicines are late or not given, notes not fully read and understood, forgetting to wash hands before touching a drip or cannula, the list goes on. It’s tough to watch how elderly patients are often treated and I dread my DM ending up in a ward like that.