NHS

My daughter has just spent a couple of frustrating hours on the telephone trying to sort out her father's situation.
He lives alone, is 85 and has his mental faculties but is housebound, can hardly walk even with assistance and needs a hoist to get in and out of bed.
My daughter felt he had deteriorated over the last few months and wanted to check if he was taking his multiple medications for rheumatoid arthritis, heart problems, pain etc. When she last saw him a few weeks ago he was adamant he was.
His GP eventually told my daughter her father had not ordered any repeat prescriptions since Oct.24, however, she could not give them over the phone so asked my daughter to drive for 4 hours to collect them. Then she said because it was such a long time since he had taken anything she was not prepared to issue further prescriptions as he needed to be referred to the rheumatology dept. for a new assessment. He has monthly blood tests done by a District Nurse so my daughter asked the GP if she could request a visit but was refused as it is a different department. My daughter contacted the District Nursing Dept. but they asked her to take a photo of her father's backside so they could prescribe a cream. My daughter repeatedly explained she lives 4 hours drive away from her father and works full time.
The carers go to him 4 times a day but have to go through my daughter to get anything done.
My daughter is at her wits end trying to sort out the mess, desperate to help her father but not able to because each department does not liase with the others.
There must be so many other elderly people in a similar situation, no family or friends close by to step in and help. What happens to them I wonder?
So frustrating and cruel.

 

Isn't this something that should be sorted by his GP practice.
They are responsible ultimately for what care he needs and is getting.
If he is not able to order repeat medication then something needs to be done, even if it means getting him into a care home.

 

If your daughter has POA she could order her fathers medication via an on line account….if the surgery operate that system @Goldenlily26. Alternatively she could arrange with the surgery to order his meds, on his behalf, and have them collected and /or delivered? The carers can be instructed, also, to check his meds daily to ensure he is taking them/being given them. When my mother had carers going in there was a folder to be completed each time a carer visited with full descriptions of what they had done. Invariably there was an entry relating to her medications. Perhaps that is something your daughter could investigate?

 

Thank you Songbird.
My son and daughter have POA which has been a big help finding out info. from the GP about her father, I know my ex has his meds delivered but not sure of the reordering system. I will speak to her about what the carers can do.
It is very difficult as the relationship between my daughter and my ex is very strained. He hates her "interfering", our son can do no wrong, but he lives in Canada so most of the day to day organising falls to my daughter, nor is my ex truthful about what he has taken etc. I think he is very angry at his situation, understandable, he has fought against everything since diagnosis which has made it very hard work for my daughter who tries to keep her father safe and cared for.

 

Thanks everyone, I have just looked back and read everyones thoughts. My daughter cannot deal personally with everyone connected to her father's case as she lives 4 hours drive away from him. At the moment he has enough mental faculty to have his say in what happens to him and is adamant he wants to stay in his own home, so true of all of us.
She has jumped through hoops and run around in circles dealing with the various departments of the care system, during recent crises, who do not share info. with each other. Setting up a care package for him.
Recently my daughter received a phone call at 1.30am from a home alarm company, telling her, her father had fallen out of bed. It took a few hours before she was able to resolve the problem without driving from Cornwall to Reading personally. All because he had so far refused to have safety rails fitted to the bed, which he had until recently refused to have in the house. She had a phone call last week from the carers to let her know he had run out of wet wipes, he has a weekly online grocery delivery, which he does himself, but it had just been delivered so it would be another week before he had any. What could my daughter do, drive 4 hours there with supplies and drive home another 4 hours. I feel the carers should have let her know sooner, I am guessing they asked him to order more and he didn't. It is very stressful for her and there doesn't seem to be a simple answer.
I am sure there are many others dealing with similar situations and there are many unhappy people trying to cope with their situation but it doesn't make it any easier or less upsetting.

 

I sympathise with your daughter's situation. I'm surprised that the practice expect him to re-order his own meds, but maybe he said he wanted to do it. I only take eye drops but the pharmacy re-orders them for me automatically. My wife is involved in trying to help her elderly aunt, she too is fiercely independent, but if her team can't get hold of her they contact my wife even though she doesn't have power of attorney. The GP practice are clearly at fault here.

As for the NHS in general, it is a very large complex organisation. The majority of people in it are doing their best but are hidebound by beurocracy. This is not helped by being constantly interfered with, and reorganised every 5 years or so by politicians who know little or nothing about it.
I could go on but will leave it there.

 

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Maybe PALS, the Patient advisory and liaison service could help
What is PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service)? - NHS

 

Thanks. I will pass the above info on to my daughter.
I would agree, it is not the people, it is the existing system of non comunication between departments.
The situation is not helped by my ex's bl***y mindedness and rudeness to anyone trying to be helpful.
I cannot imagine how awful it must feel to have your faculties but not be able to move or do anything for yourself. To have to lie in bed until 11.00am before anyone comes to get you up, to not be able to visit the bathroom or move around is so degrading and embarassing.
I hate seeing my daughter in tears of frustration, exasperation, anger, desperation, adnauseum.
etc.,etc.,etc. Grrrhhhh!