The daughter of a dying affected person who was left unable to succeed in food and drinks in hospital has branded it “not fit for purpose”.
Hannah Solomon described her mom’s remedy on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham as “absolutely disgusting”.
She selected to talk out after a damning report discovered a poisonous tradition on the NHS Trust that runs the hospital might put sufferers in danger.
Carmel Solomon, 64, was receiving end-of-life care on the hospital in 2021 and resulting from COVID restrictions, visiting was restricted.
Her daughter says she turned more and more involved when she spoke to her mom on the cellphone and was informed food and drinks have been being neglected of her attain.
“I was told directly by my mum, and I saw the bruises, that she had had to throw herself out of bed to be able to get to a drink,” she stated.
Mrs Solomon additionally fell whereas making an attempt to get to the lavatory in hospital.
“No one ever explained why she was on her own,” her daughter stated.
“She had been making an attempt to name for help for about 15-20 minutes however nothing.
“She’d shouted out at the top of her voice more than once but, because of the ridiculously long lengths of the corridors to where the actual nurses stations are at either end of the ward, it became impossible at times to be heard.
“So then she needed to stand up and go herself and that was what led to the autumn.
“She said she remembered falling down and hitting her head and that she just lay there and everything just went black.”
On one event, the household have been known as in – and Hannah was horrified by what she noticed.
“We’d been told that she hadn’t got long to live at this point,” she stated. “I lifted the blanket to find a massive pool of blood.”
“It’s disgusting, absolutely disgusting that someone should be left in such a state in the hospital,” she added. “It’s not fit for purpose at the moment.”
‘I witnessed sufferers left in their very own excrement’
Hannah was in a position to transfer her mom dwelling earlier than her demise and has made a proper grievance to the hospital however continues to be ready to listen to the end result.
But she is not the one one that has contacted Sky News to share considerations in regards to the University Hospitals Birmingham Trust, which is likely one of the largest NHS Trusts in England.
Patrick Gallagher, 38, is a former soldier who misplaced his proper leg in an IED blast in Afghanistan.
Since then, ongoing well being issues led to the amputation of his left leg in 2018, an operation that was carried out on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He then required dozens of admissions between 2016 and 2020.
“I witnessed on multiple wards – on multiple occasions during multiple admissions – elderly, vulnerable patients being left… just being left in their own urine and excrement,” he stated.
He added: “The level of care I was seeing – and empathy and compassion not only towards myself but towards other patients – and the lack of care I was seeing… it was just pretty horrendous.”
Sometimes he can be in agony and begging workers for ache reduction, the previous soldier added.
“You felt like you were being treated like a drug addict or that you just wanted the morphine for a high and that’s what it felt like a lot of the time,” he stated.
He added: “Their attitude towards you makes you feel almost like you don’t deserve the treatment you’re getting and that’s the way they speak.”
‘We intention to offer the very best care’
In response to his claims, a spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham stated: “Mr Gallagher has unfortunately not raised any formal concerns with us, therefore we would urge him to be in touch so that we can investigate the issues he has shared.
“We take all considerations significantly and use that important info to enhance how we ship care to sufferers.”
Responding to the claims made by Hannah Solomon, the spokesperson added: “We intention to offer the very best care, nevertheless we acknowledge that we don’t at all times get it proper, and we’re sorry the place any affected person or household feels there’s any trigger to lift any concern.
“We know that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, not seeing a loved one in hospital when they were unwell was difficult for all families, and this will have added to the trauma families experienced at the end of a loved one’s life.
“As the assessment of the Solomon household’s grievance is ongoing we can not remark additional at this stage, however we are going to present our response to the household as quickly as doable – we’re sorry for its delay and any extra misery this delay has prompted.”
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Source: information.sky.com”