Can I Get My Dad Transferred To Another Hospital?

[KTMsm]

My father has been in a critical care ward for 5 weeks - as it's a Birmingham hospital there's NO visiting

Due to the blood / water infections he is regularly confused and he thinks we've abandoned him and put him in a care home - to the extent that he won't answer his phone to any of us for the last week

We simply can't get through to the Ward either - 2 hrs of ringing out and being cut off

Can we get him transferred to a Coventry hospital as they allow visiting ?

I've googled and it seems he could well meet the criteria but it wasn't clear if we could transfer him to another area ? (The distance is about the same)

Thanks

[bungz]

Have you contacted PALS?

[cheeky_chops]

KTMsm said:

My father has been in a critical care ward for 5 weeks - as it's a Birmingham hospital there's NO visiting

Due to the blood / water infections he is regularly confused and he thinks we've abandoned him and put him in a care home - to the extent that he won't answer his phone to any of us for the last week

We simply can't get through to the Ward either - 2 hrs of ringing out and being cut off

Can we get him transferred to a Coventry hospital as they allow visiting ?

I've googled and it seems he could well meet the criteria but it wasn't clear if we could transfer him to another area ? (The distance is about the same)

Thanks

My brother was in the intensive/critical care unit at QE (interesting fact, biggest ICU in Europe with 100 beds) for 5 days 2 weeks ago. The phone never rang more than twice, the door was answered immediately. They had plenty of staff (or seemed to), updated us all the time and they couldnt of been more helpful, saw others visitors too so its not a "Birmingham" or a QE thing.

Above not to be difficult, they were amazing, hope you get some help and guidance as it must be a worry

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo]

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

This suggests you can. Obviously it depends on the other hospital having room. Where my wife worked the wards are both understaffed and full of patients as they’re struggling to discharge patients (no carers / space in care homes).

I don’t suppose you have a private care option? Or the chance for the family to all pitch in and get him into a private facility? Sadly you’re going to struggle for decent care outside of the QE if it’s not private at the moment.

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo]

cheeky_chops said:

My brother was in the intensive/critical care unit at QE (interesting fact, biggest ICU in Europe with 100 beds) for 5 days 2 weeks ago. The phone never rang more than twice, the door was answered immediately. They had plenty of staff (or seemed to), updated us all the time and they couldnt of been more helpful, saw others visitors too so its not a "Birmingham" or a QE thing.

Above not to be difficult, they were amazing, hope you get some help and guidance as it must be a worry

Some of the Birmingham hospitals fall under the Sandwell trusts. They banned visitors again back in December.

[KTMsm]

bungz said:

Have you contacted PALS?

I tried them when he was in before - utterly useless, they just tried to justify the appalling lack of communication

[KTMsm]

cheeky_chops said:

My brother was in the intensive/critical care unit at QE (interesting fact, biggest ICU in Europe with 100 beds) for 5 days 2 weeks ago. The phone never rang more than twice, the door was answered immediately. They had plenty of staff (or seemed to), updated us all the time and they couldnt of been more helpful, saw others visitors too so its not a "Birmingham" or a QE thing.

Above not to be difficult, they were amazing, hope you get some help and guidance as it must be a worry

That's strange - I had googled and it is all University Hospitals (in Birmingham) which includes the QE

"As our hospitals care for vulnerable patients and continue to be high-risk locations for COVID-19, our restrictions remain tighter than other locations.

All visiting is suspended, except in the special circumstances listed below"

[KTMsm]

BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo said:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/governmen...

This suggests you can. Obviously it depends on the other hospital having room. Where my wife worked the wards are both understaffed and full of patients as they’re struggling to discharge patients (no carers / space in care homes).

I don’t suppose you have a private care option? Or the chance for the family to all pitch in and get him into a private facility? Sadly you’re going to struggle for decent care outside of the QE if it’s not private at the moment.

Dad has plenty of money but we keep being told by his (NHS) Doctor that he's in the best place, he's been in and out of hospital since late Nov, I don't think they ever cleared the infection - he's on several intravenous antibiotics

He's in Heartlands which from what I've seen is a disaster - certainly regarding communication - he was discharged in Dec with no warning and no aftercare, we finally found out 10 days later that he should have been having Nurses visiting but the Hospital informed the wrong area (who then did nothing)

[cheeky_chops]

KTMsm said:

cheeky_chops said:

My brother was in the intensive/critical care unit at QE (interesting fact, biggest ICU in Europe with 100 beds) for 5 days 2 weeks ago. The phone never rang more than twice, the door was answered immediately. They had plenty of staff (or seemed to), updated us all the time and they couldnt of been more helpful, saw others visitors too so its not a "Birmingham" or a QE thing.

Above not to be difficult, they were amazing, hope you get some help and guidance as it must be a worry

That's strange - I had googled and it is all University Hospitals (in Birmingham) which includes the QE

"As our hospitals care for vulnerable patients and continue to be high-risk locations for COVID-19, our restrictions remain tighter than other locations.

All visiting is suspended, except in the special circumstances listed below"

Sorry, Ive just googled it too, yes he came under "special circumstances"

TBH, the rules dont seem to match what i experienced - carpark seemed fairly busy, the main atrium shops were all open and plenty of people milling round (wearing masks). I genuinely thought it was pretty much business as normal with a few restrictions like masks/gels.

[oddman]

KTMsm said:

Dad has plenty of money but we keep being told by his (NHS) Doctor that he's in the best place, he's been in and out of hospital since late Nov, I don't think they ever cleared the infection - he's on several intravenous antibiotics

TBF the Dr is probably right. If your dad has decision making capacity he could make the call (even if unwise) to transfer to private unit. If he hasn't got decision making capacity and you don't have LPA for health and welfare then it's the consultants call

However private sector is good at short term elective (ie. profitable) treatments and outside of London (Rich Russians and Arabs etc) there isn't much demand (or indeed financial clout) for private acute or geriatric medicine. I'd be surprised if any change out of £1000 per day for basic care in acute medical ward before costs for tests, procedures and consultation/medical care added.

Even during the height of the first wave when all my patients were testing positive and about a third died, although the ward was shut, I was letting relatives visit dying patients on the QT. After all it was the visitors taking the risk at that time. I was fortunate to have the support of the ward manager and nursing team and was within a year of retirement so wasn't afraid of the professional consequences.

Now given the very high community prevalence and low lethality to vaccinated individuals; that PPE seems to limit spread in the workplace and staff are not limited outside work (where they are more liekly to pick it up in shops, bars etc. and off their snotty kids), I don't think wide variations in visiting can be justified.

Another consideration is that is return home realistic? If he is destined for a care home then would that be close the the hospital where he is now or, for instance, closer to you. It wasn't unusual for me to discharge patients to care homes hundreds of miles away. It is arguable that for complex patients, an NHS transfer and then sort the patient out close to the likely care home would be a sensible approach. However I was never successful at getting a consultant colleague to accept a transfer under these circumstances - everyone is full, busy and no one does any favours becuase they are almost always punished in the NHS.

Disappointing to hear about PALS. Sounds like they've 'gone native'

[sutoka]

Call me old fashioned but if they are still trying to use Covid as an excuse to stop relatives visiting then I'd be up at the hospital demanding to see him. The fact he thinks you have abandoned him would indicate the staff aren't communicating with him effectively and that would ring alarm bells for me.

From experience of having elderly relatives in hospital pre, during and post Covid I can tell you that constant moving patients around only confuses them further especially if they are on strong medication or suffering from dementia.

[Colonel Cupcake]

sutoka said:

Call me old fashioned but if they are still trying to use Covid as an excuse to stop relatives visiting then I'd be up at the hospital demanding to see him. The fact he thinks you have abandoned him would indicate the staff aren't communicating with him effectively and that would ring alarm bells for me.

Deffo this. Kick up a stink next time you go. Its not prison. Just meekly accepting what they say will just perpetuate the nonsense.