My mother is currently a patient on Ward 16 in Milton Keynes Hospital, and I visited her this afternoon (February 12^th 2008), on my father’s birthday.

My mother was an active 87 year old – active in that she was playing Bridge every week, and shopping in Tesco in Towcester until that is, that she reached down to pick up a telephone directory, and sat back and missed the chair and landed on the floor with a bump, and felt jarring pain. This happened on January 5^th this year, and only a month ago.

An ambulance arrived (January 5^th 2008) and took her to Milton Keynes Hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured left head of femur. She was moved to Ward 21 an Orthopaedic ward, where she was starved awaiting the operating theatre. However her operation was delayed till Sunday evening, because of road traffic accidents on the motorways, at least that was the excuse given.

Milton Keynes Hospital has only one operating theatre open at weekends, which is somewhat surprising for an NHS Foundation Trust, with 460 inpatient beds, but in a modified NHS statistics count, I fear, rather than patients – please prove me wrong…

Her care on the orthopaedic ward was in my opinion lacking in part, my mother had a urinary catheter in place for a few days, and when it was taken out she was incontinent. She also was nauseated and vomited for four days – I suggested to one of the nurses that she should be recatheterised with a Flip Flow device that would restore her bladder control, and as she was vomiting go back on IV fluids – the nurse said it was up to the doctor, and a few days later she was back on the items requested.

We decided to have my mother cared for in a nursing home near their home, for convalescence and rehabilitation. My mother was incontinent of urine in the home, until that is her birthday (30^th January), when I took her home in her wheelchair, and we discovered that she was continent, and knew when she wanted to go to the toilet. Her incontinence had been to the nursing home’s poor management and nothing more.

My sister managed to get the Community Physiotherapist to call, and he told us that my mother should have been discharged from Milton Keynes hospital with a standing turning frame. A week ago she wasn’t and in the nursing home no information was given by the hospital about it – one of a number of miscommunications we were going to find out.

I visited my mother at the nursing home on the 5^th February to find her confused and pulling her cardigan to pieces. The staff nurse was awaiting the GP (doctor) to arrive, and she told me that my mum needed Promazine, often referred to as a major tranquilliser! Obviously this nurse’s clinical qualifications were lacking, as it later turned out that there was a clinical reason for her confusion. I wonder sometimes if small nursing home’s are the right places for elderly care?

My wife and sister-in-law work in a nursing home run by Barchester plc, and their clinical knowledge is first rate, so it really depends on the individual nurse doesn’t it!

My mother was admitted to CDU1 at Milton Keynes Hospital, and stayed there a few days, before being moved at midnight to Ward 16. I would at this stage wonder if carting an elderly woman at midnight around a hospital to find a bed was humanly possible – Milton Keynes hospital says it all for organisation, doesn’t it?

I visited my mother today on my father’s birthday (February 12, 2008), and found her looking pale  and tired sitting out in a chair beside her bed. I had a look at the green folder at the foot of her bed, which revealed: “Liquid stools last three days – no solids. On the 11^th February Klebsiella was isolated in her urine and a note said ‘barrier nurse’. Her blood pressure was high yesterday 174/129 at 2230 and today 153/106” (the bottom measurement is the diastolic and according to the NICE National Institute of Clinical Excellence high blood pressure of 160/100 is at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death, and should be treated with drug therapy).

The Klebsiella was the result of a urinary sample sent by her doctor in the community to microbiology. On asking the doctor why it was not being treated she told me that they were waiting for the result of a urine specimen, however later my sister discovered that they had not taken a sample since she has been in hospital – alarm bell – negligence.

My mother has been on a maintenance dose of Amlodipine for years, and prior to coming into hospital her GP (doctor) stopped it. Her hypertension appeared not to have been noticed by the hospital ward staff, and I spoke to the health care assistant taking her blood pressure and she appeared not to understand what hypertension was – only to say when the upper reading (the systolic) went above 200mmHg would the machine light up red. - Worrying

Infection control appears to be lacking, why has a nurse just attended my mother and not worn a plastic apron?

Watery stools, and the nurse is telling me that my mum can’t be constipated, because she is on Senna, a laxative for a lazy bowl. However watery stools suggest constipation and overflow……the fact that she has had watery stools (no solids) for four days is alarming.

Documentation appears poor – the Waterlow score is incomplete, no-one was aware that a urinary sample had not been taken…….

My sister just rang me to say that my mother has said, “I am in a corner and I am not going to get out of it, and I will see you in eternity”.