Woman, 89, trapped in hospital for six months despite being fit to leave
An NHS trust has launched a formal inquiry after an 89-year-old woman who was medically fit to leave hospital was trapped on a ward for six months, costing the NHS more than £80,000.
Iris Sibley and her family were left feeling “distressed and let down” after she was kept isolated on a hospital ward at Bristol Royal infirmary because the community healthcare provider failed to find her a suitable nursing home place.
The situation put a huge strain on the family and left her 90-year-old husband deeply unhappy, said her son John Sibley. “It’s pretty scandalous,” he said. “It’s not until you get caught up in it that you realise how serious the situation is. I decided to speak out about it because I wanted to stand up for ordinary people like my mum.”
In a case which highlights the deepening social care crisis in the UK, Iris was taken into hospital last June after a fall in her residential home. She was assessed by Bristol Community Health (BCH) on behalf of the South Gloucestershire clinical commissioning group, the NHS body responsible for local healthcare services.
On 11 August, BCH said she needed 24-hour nursing care, which would be covered by the NHS – but a place in a suitable nursing home was only found on 4 January this year, a few weeks after the agencies involved had been contacted by the Guardian for comment about the case.
Her son John Sibley said: “It’s pretty scandalous. It’s not until you get caught up in it that you realise how serious the situation is. I decided to speak out about it because I wanted to stand up for ordinary people like my mum.”
Sibley said the staff who looked after his mother were amazing. “They just don’t stop, they are always working – nothing is too much trouble for them. I call them angels and they are – but they shouldn’t have to do it,” he said.
The family were offered two places, one on 13 September and the other on 4 October, but both were too far for Iris’s husband to visit. The first was also a very poor choice, said Sibley. “I read the CQC report and it was appalling, and when I visited it I thought I wouldn’t put a sick dog in there let alone my mum. It smelt of urine, the paper was peeling off the wall in the room they wanted to put her in. It was disgusting.”
To make matters worse, Iris was diagnosed as being a carrier of C diff, a bacterium that can cause diarrhoea, so spent much of her time alone in a side room. Sibley said the family constantly had to chase for information about her future. According to BCH, the ongoing health team “actively communicated” with the family on nine occasions.
Iris’s physical and mental health deteriorated significantly, Sibley said. “She was mixing with other people [in the residential home], it stretched her mind a bit,” he said. “But in the hospital there is nothing. They are wonderful people, they do the best they can – but my mum was in a hospital, not in a place where she could call home.”
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