Can anyone who works in hospitals advise?

[minimini358]

Just looking for a bit of advice.

My dad has been admitted due to a flare of his ulcerative colitis, but the gastro ward doesn't currently allow any visitors due to covid outbreaks.

Could anyone let me know how I go about speaking to a doctor about his care management plan? My dad is useless at asking the right questions, never challenges what they say and then forgets half of it by the time he tells us (no problems with impairment he just forgets it!)

He had a ct scan and camera on Friday and no one has spoken to him about those results and whether surgery will be an option. He's currently in on a steroid drip but He hasn't spoken to the surgeon since he got admitted on Wednesday and the general doctor that did the ward rounds today apparently said to him 'you don't look like you need surgery but your charts and tests say otherwise'.

I want to be able to speak to someone as his next of kin and push for some actual information- am I allowed to do this and if so how do I go about it?

You can try and speak to the nurse looking after your dad or call the surgeons secretary on Monday and request for someone to call you back. Being next of kin doesnt matter if you want to discuss your dads care unless he has given the staff permission to speak to you or you have poa and he has lost capacity. Most staff are happy to give out basic info with dads permission. If he has a scan on Friday it will be reviewed by his own team on the next ward round or on monday.

Hi op. Firstly check with your dad he is happy for staff to give information over the phone to you. Once that is done either, ask to speak to the nurse in charge, or, the nurse looking after your dad. At the weekend there is less staff so, you could always ask the nurse to get a doctor to phone next week. Although you may get all of the information you need from the nurses.

I wouldn't expect much till Mondays rounds . If there was something very urgent they would act on it and call you .
This happened to me with my DF also and when I rang the ward they gave me the ward phone to speak to him which was reassuring, even though he couldn't tell me much .

Senior hospital manager here. Your dad will have a named nurse, you can call the ward and ask to speak to them. Your dad will also have a consultant and a medical team under them looking after his treatment.

I'd speak to named nurse for update and ask for name of his consultant just for your information. Then ask if member of medical team can call you for update. If you feel you get no where ask to speak to consultant. You can do this by asking named nurse to relay message. If that doesn't happen, call hospital switchboard and ask for consultant's secretary. Explain situation, inform you have gone through all other channels first and are now approaching directly

Many wards dont have named nurses nymore and you need your dads permission to speak to the nurses and doctors about his care. What you could do is ring the ward, they may have a mobile phone if dad hasn't got one and dad can give them verbal consent to talk about his careplan and treatment but I wouldnt expect much on a weekend.

Speak with ward nurses about arranging a time to speak with the Consultant covering the ward, either by phone/in person. They will give you their secretaries details for you to arrange a time with. Your father will need to give permission for his condition to be discussed, and it would be only for next of kin, if you dont hold pier of attorney.

im a secretary and arrange family visits for the consultant fairly regularly . Then can be difficult to pin down for availability though.

Does his IBD nurse know he is there? They should be another route of contact who may be able to give you some information, with his permission I expect. My IBD nurse always know more than the doctors anyway!

Named nurses haven't been a thing for about 15 years in my trust😂

Surprised a hospital manager would be advocating giving patient information over the phone with no consent from the patient. Just because someone is next of kin, as long as the patient has capacity you don’t get to know the details of their medical history etc without the patients consent. So you’d need to ask your dad to speak to his medical team to give consent for you and to be informed re his care. someone else mentioned the IBD nurse? Could they help with making information clearer for your dad to understand and relay to you?

I hope your dad is on the mend soon op

There will be a nurse in charge if you call the ward.

Don't expect too much on a Sunday though, hospitals are ghost towns on Sundays and it's usually students who see patients.

Every inpatient where I work has a named nurse. It may change on each shift for some wards but, there is always someone designated as their nurse during the shift

A named nurse was a concept years ago when one nurse was responsible for planning a patients care throughout their stay, its long gone. What you have now is a nurse allocated to a bay where your dad will be on each shift. I imagine all dad will be told over the weekend and before the ward round is that they are waiting on scan and scope results and for he consultant or senior reg to see him again tomorrow. Student doctors do not review patients, there is always a weekend out of hours doctor on call. Your dad could write a note for the nurses giving consent for a doctor to discuss his care with you which could be put in his notes. Staff cannot and should not just give out info over the phone to someone they dont know, some nurses will set up a password system , if dad has a mobile ohone you could text him questions he should ask the doctor as a reminder if he is a bit forgetful. i would hope a hospital manager is aware of this.

Absolute bull shit that Covid is still stopping visiting in places.

I would ask your dad to ask how to give his consent to share his information so you can phone for updates and be fully aware of what is happening.

My auntie was in hospital last year when all visiting was banned. The staff were utterly useless at telling us what was going on with her care and what was the matter with her
Apparently she wasn't expected to survive the week but also wasn't dying enough to warrant a visit until she was face down on the floor dead, we were allowed to see her then.

In our Trust there are consultants ward rounds 7 days a week but I know not all hospitals do that.
if you ring the ward today and ask to speak to the nurse in charge, ask them to pop
a note on the front of your dads notes saying that you are requesting a call from the Consultants team. If it’s electronic notes only they should still be able to add that message. On the ward round it should be seen. If you don’t get the call then ring the consultants secretary.
if you can speak to your dad ask him to give his permission to the team.

If your dad has a mobile phone with him and if he is happy for you to know the details, it may be easiest for him to call you when a doctor is there with him - that way you can be on speaker phone and all of you know what’s been said. Probably best done on a weekday though when his named team are there rather than at the weekend.