Hospitals sending home soiled pads!

[Tups]

My 79 year old father is seriously ill in hospital. At the moment, he isn't managing to get to the loo in time and is heavily soiling incontinence pads and pyjamas. My mother, who isn't at all well herself, is being handed both soiled PJs AND soiled pads to take home and deal with herself!! Before I create a stink of my own, does anyone know if this is standard practice these days?

[daffy654]

All hospitals have disposal systems in place to deal with the incontinence pads,they should not be giving them to patients relatives to take home........imagine if the person had arrived on public transport or in a taxi,can you imagine them being allowed to travel home the same way carrying soiled and smelly incontinence pads? Pyjamas can be rinsed out before being taken home to launder,pads cannot.

[ummmm]

Soiled clothing...in my experience yes....padding NO.

They left my Uncle on the toilet for over an hour when he was in....It's shambolic but it varies from ward to ward. We kicked up a fuss and they moved him to another ward. On that ward they discovered he had body lice. The doctor thought he'd come in with them as he'd just arrived on the ward....he'd been in for 2 months and caught them while in there.

He couldn't move his arms so couldn't feed himself. They put food in front of him and took it away uneaten with no questions asked. My sister, Dad and me stayed with him in shifts....the nurses hated us..!!

They say they are so busy with their work loads but from what I witnessed they spent a lot of time at the nurses station laughing, joking and gosipping.

The Doctor spoke to my Uncle like he was a 'thick Paddy' (his names Paddy lol)....just because they couldn't understand his strong Irish accent......The doctor came round and asked what his bowel movements were like....Paddy didn't hear him and said 'pardon'....the doctor then said...'what is your shit like'?

I went mad......he at least had the decency to apologise to my Uncle (he wasn't bothered) and to my sister and I.....I also pointed out to the doctor that not only are we caring for my Uncle from 9am to 8pm everyday, and not the nurses, but the other patients were asking us to do things for them as well because the nurses did not come when they pressed the button.....

Sorry for that rant......but complain complain complain...... xxx

[DEN53]

Hi Tups - your poor Mum, how stupid of the hospital to give her the soiled pads back - even the pyjamas they could put in the hospital laundry. I think it does depend upon individal hospitals, but I think these 'professional' people do lack commonsense, and they wonder why germs are spread.

Like ummmm said, complain, complain - perhaps in writing to the hospital administrator.

[ummmm]

I found complaining to the doctors helped. Every ward round I complained.....

We had to feed my Uncle breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday....I ate a carrot off his plate and the nurse told me off.

Excuse me woman....who's job is this?? ffs

[bednobs]

Den is not correct in his "hospital laundry" statement. Most hospitals send their laundry out. Even if they did have a laundry on site, can you inagine the problem of reuniting 1 pair of pyjamas with 1 out of 500-1000 patients, amongst all the sheets, blankets towels etc?

[bednobs]

ummmm, how would you feel if he was being fed by a nurse, and you saw him/her eating a carrot off the plate ???

[daffy654]

A visitor eating from the plate of the person they are visiting is not the same as a nurse doing the same thing with a patient bednobs.

[Nannyjill]

During my last stay in hospital the lady in the bed next to me and myself conducted a survey of exactly what the nurses were doing during the day and handed it to the consultant when he came round. One day we timed 4 nursing staff (not sure of their rank) sitting at the nurses station chatting and laughing for 49 mins meanwhile a lady in the corner kept buzzing for them. Eventually one of them came over and tutted at her and pulled the bed away from the wall so she couldn't reach the buzzer.

It was disgraceful when my partner came in I asked him to move the bed back - but he wouldn't. When her family came in I told them but by then the same had changed over.

[Tups]

Thanks for the replies and support. It makes my blood boil to see the dreadful experiences of others too. We have a 'wonderful new hospital' here in Portsmouth - not where my dad is; he's in Somerset. The only problem is that although we have fantastic new, clean (so far!) buildings, it it still undermanned. But hey, what does that matter; the building looks good!!!