11 May - The end of an era. 78 years!
A difficult two weeks has come to an end. After being quite literally dumped
on her doorstep with nothing but her clothes and handbag my aunt of very nearly
99 years is in a respite home funded by Newham Council for four weeks while I
look for something more permanent.
Everyone, maybe you too, has found it difficult to believe that the hospital did
and provided nothing whatever, not even the medication was sent out with her.
Some of it came later by courier and when that package proved to be deficient I
fetched the remainder myself.
As a result of Newham University
Hospital’s failures the first injections were made two days late
and only family intervention produced a physiotherapist. Last Thursday, very
nearly three weeks after the femur was repaired and as a result of that neglect
my aunt’s in-turning right foot is never likely to be straight again.
Some of the people masquerading as nurses don’t seem very bright to me. Trying
to engage my aunt in conversation I said “tell the nurse where you were born”.
She had forgotten so I chipped in “Rangoon, Burma”.
Blank looks!
So I added “it is called Myanmar now”. Still blank.
“It’s just east of India, it is all much the same place really.” It got me
nowhere, she simply didn’t seem to recognise that India was a country. It
reminded me of the time when a senior
Newham Social Worker asked me what a Hampshire was. She’d never heard of it,
didn’t know it was a County.
After being half promised respite care by last Tuesday, then Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday and with nothing happening, things were getting a bit desperate.
Little sleep, very low on my gluten free diet, no shower and no functioning bath - a long story!
Fortunately friends were operating in the background. The appointed Social
Worker, a regular in Wilton Road, Abbey Wood apparently, was banging his head
against a brick wall, the prospect of a care home had been kicked into the
middle of next week.
“I can’t understand it” he said. “You saw me making phone calls, I tried to get
her in last Tuesday” he added apologetically, and so 3 p.m. Friday came and went and a
long and smelly weekend was in prospect.
Then
the Social Worker came back all excited, he had made a breakthrough and this morning the
old lady was taken to her temporary home. Someone in Bexley should offer that
man a local job.
What I now know happened and I presume was critical is that the Independent
Councillor for Thamesmead East, the 25 year old Danny Hackett had metaphorically
kicked the arse of the Cabinet Member for Adults’ Services in Newham and she in
turn jumped on someone. I know because I have seen the emails.
So come the next election in Thamesmead, vote for Danny folks, you won’t get
that sort of service from anyone else.
So at last a happy, well more satisfactory anyway, ending. She didn’t want to go; 78 years in the same house is
a long time and it was all rather upsetting. “Please don’t leave me Daddy.”
Another friend was Teresa Pearce, I need hardly add the initials MP do I? She
kept in touch by text message. When I said I was finally ready for the journey
home both tired and smelly she offered to come and pick me up in her car. I
declined but as I trudged my way along Fendyke Road from the station my slightly
wobbly knees were suggesting I had made the wrong decision.
So that’s about it, back to something like normal tomorrow. Has anything been happening in Bexley?
Apologies if the off topic tales were not to your liking, there was frequently
little else to do while away. As some will know I engaged in a Twitter war with Newham Hospital and researched their Tweets which were quite often bragging
exchanges between staff members about how they were so good at throwing people out of hospital fast.
They must have realised what I was doing because the Chief Executive of the
Hospital and the Tayberry Ward manager deleted their Twitter Accounts.
Next port of call, a medical negligence lawyer. How is it that we have so many
very stupid people running this country? You only have to look to Westminster to
see how it comes from the top. Sorry Teresa, there is always the exception to prove the rule.
When things have calmed down these blogs will be combined into a single page
with suitable metadata etc. to provide a fitting memorial to Dr. Charlotte Pratt
(GMC Number 3083318), the geriatric consultant who signed off my aunt as fit to live alone.
Presumably it is ‘who cares, she is 99 let her die’. People like Charlotte Pratt should not
be let anywhere near any position of power.
Thanks are however due to the concerned GP, the lady at the Clinical
Commissioning Group who managed to interest Social Services in the case after
they had refused and put the phone down on us twice. Also the ladies from
Highland Care UK (Heigham Road, East Ham) who were absolutely fantastic. Every old lady should have a Mohima to look after her.
Related blogs
25 April 2019. •
27 April 2019. •
29 April 2019. •
2 May 2019. •
3 May 2019 1st part. •
3 May 2019 2nd part. •
6 May 2019 1st part. •
6 May 2019 2nd part. •
7 May 2019. •
8 May 2019. •
9 May 2019. •
10 May 2019. •
11 May 2019. •
18 May 2019.
The Omnibus Edition.
