The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

hjd

I never thought of a career change to becoming a getaway driver until yesterday..
My mum has been in hospital with an infection for 4 weeks. She finished her 4 week course of intravenous antibiotics on Monday and was passed as medically fit for discharge; it was agreed she would move to a local care home for intermediate care to get her strong enough to go home.
I have been the next of kin/contact.
Yesterday she had an outpatient appointment at the same hospital so I came to visit about 3.30 when I thought she would be back on the ward.
I arrived to be told that she was in the "departure lounge" (rather an unfortunate name I think) ready to go to the care home. Nobody had contacted me to tell me this. I dashed down there and she was waiting for the hospital transport. The nurse in charge was making phone calls to hurry things along, and mentioned that my mum needed to be at the care home before 5pm as that was when the drawbridge went up. I asked what she meant and was told that that home will not accept new patients after 5pm and they were very strict on this cut off.
Time was moving on and the nurse was making more phone calls - if they couldn't get her to the home before 5pm then she would have to be re-admitted and they would have to find her a bed in hospital for the night. I offered to drive her but was told that wasn't allowed. Similarly a taxi was not allowed.
Eventually hospital transport showed up - they would collect my mother then had 4 more patients to collect around the hospital before departure. This obviously wasn't going to work.
Finally in desperation at 4.45 they agreed I could take her. I ran to get the car, the nurse pushed the wheelchair and she was in the car at 4.50.
If anyone has ever tried to get out of the hospital in Tooting at rush hour - it's not fun.
I knew the address of the care home and roughly where to go - so told my mum the road name; we found it, drove down it for ever, and finally pulled into the car park at 4.58. I made a dash for reception, they looked at the clock and conceded it was still before 5. "Are you patient transport?" they asked. Well, in a manner of speaking yes - I transported the patient..
Staff were lovely, she was processed, fed and settled fine.
As I left about 6, another ambulance crew were arguing with the staff that they had a patient to be admitted. Staff pointed out that it was well after 5 and that, in any case, they had no record of this patient. I left before finding out what happened.

I was still too wired to sleep much last night!
On second thoughts, I think I'll stick with accountancy..

Sorry it's so long!

GDB2222

My sympathies, hjd. So stressful. At my local hospital, it’s called the Discharge Lounge. DW always asks what colour it is.

I can’t understand why the hospital has a say in whether you can transport your mum if she has been discharged?

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

My sympathies, hjd. So stressful. At my local hospital, it’s called the Discharge Lounge. DW always asks what colour it is.

I can’t understand why the hospital has a say in whether you can transport your mum if she has been discharged?

:rotfl:


Re the last point, it's probably something to do with insurance, as always, but there must be some discretion, otherwise they wouldn't have let her go with you at all.

I had a horrible time in the discharge lounge after I had my cholecystectomy. I don't react well to anaesthetics, and I felt horrible and just wanted to go home and go to bed, but I had to sit in a cold, draughty, noisy room (lounge is a mis-nomer) near the ambulance entrance, sitting in chair, for three hours they said.

A friend was coming to pick me up, and wanted to come earlier, but they said no. In the end, I asked if I could lie down, so they let me go on a hard trolley, no blankets, so I could lie down.
Where I was lying, they couldn't see me, so If I'd passed out they wouldn't have known.

I felt like just ringing for a taxi and absconding. When my friend turned up, I burst into tears.

Not a nice experience.

If I win the lottery, I will fund a quiet room with reclining armchairs and blankets for post-operative people to wait in, away from the noise, and the cold open door.

So, if you come across the Pyxis Room in a hospital, you'll know that my numbers came up! Hahahahahahahahahah!

ivyleaf

That's a brilliant idea Pyxis :T

hjd

GDB2222 wrote: »

My sympathies, hjd. So stressful. At my local hospital, it’s called the Discharge Lounge. DW always asks what colour it is.

I can’t understand why the hospital has a say in whether you can transport your mum if she has been discharged?

If she had been discharged, no problem. However, technically she was transferred (from NHS hospital to bed funded by NHS in care home) and that made all the difference apparently.

Pyxis

hjd wrote: »

If she had been discharged, no problem. However, technically she was transferred (from NHS hospital to bed funded by NHS in care home) and that made all the difference apparently.

That makes sense.

SingleSue

After dad had his first stroke, he was moved to the discharge lounge on the day we were to collect him....he suffered another stroke whilst he was waiting for us (we hadn't actually been told he was being discharged so we had no clothes with us either and only found out when we went to the ward to visit him)

It was only on our arrival in the discharge lounge that we realised he was having/had had another stroke, none of the staff had realised, no idea how long he had been like that (apparently he had been there for a good couple of hours) but the damage from that stroke was horrendous.

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

After dad had his first stroke, he was moved to the discharge lounge on the day we were to collect him....he suffered another stroke whilst he was waiting for us (we hadn't actually been told he was being discharged so we had no clothes with us either and only found out when we went to the ward to visit him)

It was only on our arrival in the discharge lounge that we realised he was having/had had another stroke, none of the staff had realised, no idea how long he had been like that (apparently he had been there for a good couple of hours) but the damage from that stroke was horrendous.

That's dreadful! :T Ho every awful.:(

And was he waiting there in his pyjamas?

That rather proves my point, that having to wait in discharge lounges for a set time after a procedure, in case of a reaction or something, is pointless if there isn't a member of staff there who is medically trained to recognise these things.

SingleSue

Yep, in his pj's and no shoes.

There had been no indication he was being released that day, me and mum were going up for a normal visit, so had nothing to dress him in either.

It had all happened so fast, apparently the doctor said he could go home and 2 mins later he was being wheeled around to the discharge lounge with no time to call home (dad doesn't carry a mobile phone and the pay phones are pretty scarce now in hospitals) and the hospital hadn't told us either. We only discovered his 'release' when we turned up at the ward.

To make things worse, he wasn't just sitting there and quietly having a stroke, he was half collapsed out of the chair and half on the floor with all his bits showing and despite others in the room trying to get someone's attention, no-one had come.

And they wonder why he doesn't trust hospitals and being admitted now...

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

Yep, in his pj's and no shoes.

There had been no indication he was being released that day, me and mum were going up for a normal visit, so had nothing to dress him in either.

It had all happened so fast, apparently the doctor said he could go home and 2 mins later he was being wheeled around to the discharge lounge with no time to call home (dad doesn't carry a mobile phone and the pay phones are pretty scarce now in hospitals) and the hospital hadn't told us either. We only discovered his 'release' when we turned up at the ward.

To make things worse, he wasn't just sitting there and quietly having a stroke, he was half collapsed out of the chair and half on the floor with all his bits showing and despite others in the room trying to get someone's attention, no-one had come.

And they wonder why he doesn't trust hospitals and being admitted now...

Oh poor man.

I mean apart from the awfulness of having a stroke and no one doing anything, why on Earth put someone in a discharge lounge in his pyjamas and bare feet? :mad: :mad: