NHS Care of Older People

Stephen Pound Excerpts

Thursday 27th October 2011 Westminster Hall

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Brooke. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Margot James) on securing this important and timely debate. I beg your indulgence as I tell a personal story about my mum’s recent journey through the national health service. As many colleagues will know, my mum had a bad stroke in June this year, and we have had a bumpy ride over the past four months. I want to make it clear at the outset that the vast majority of care workers, nurses, doctors and other staff with whom we have come into contact have shown my mum a great deal of loving care, but she seems to have been let down by system failures.

Mum is 86, but before her stroke, she was still working, teaching three yoga classes a week, doing reflexology, driving her car and leading a totally full life. As hon. Members can imagine, it has been devastating not only for her but for all of us. After the stroke, she was first admitted to Luton and Dunstable hospital’s accident and emergency department. At about 4 in the morning, she was medically ready to be transferred to a ward and was taken up to the stroke ward. However, when we got there, we were told that there was no bed. We were not too fazed at that point—it was the middle of the night—so we accepted it, and she was transferred back to the emergency admissions ward. At the time, the medics were not sure that Mum would survive, so it was a difficult time for us.

By the following afternoon, we were getting agitated—[Interruption.] Excuse me, Mrs Brooke; you can tell how it made me feel. Anybody’s journey through the national health services in such circumstances is difficult, and ours has not been made better by what has happened to us. We were agitated by the following afternoon. Mum was still on the emergency ward, which was very busy and noisy. Eventually, we started the journey back to the stroke ward, to be greeted at the desk again with “Sorry, there’s no room.” At that point, I started to become six foot tall, thinking, “My mother is going to come into your ward.” Fortunately, a sister behind the desk treated us nicely, saying, “This woman will be admitted on to our ward.”

Some time later, concerned about her breathing, I called for a nurse. The nurse came in and said, “Well, you know she’s do not resuscitate, don’t you?” I said, “Yes, but I’m concerned about her breathing.” The nurse said, “Oh no, she’s fine. She’s actually in a deep sleep and things are good, but oh dear, I’ve not hung up the drip.” I spent the next half-hour holding up the drip so that Mum would get saline and holding Mum’s hand until the nurse eventually returned with the drip stand.

That is just the start of a chapter of system failure. It was a great frustration going to the desk and seeing all those people behind it, but being totally ignored. I did not know whether they were physiotherapists or doctors. When I said, “Mum needs the commode,” or “Please can you,” I was ignored. That was not just our experience but the experience of everybody on the ward.

[Stephen Pound (Ealing North) (Lab)]

Sorry, but I cannot believe I heard that. Can my hon. Friend confirm that the charge nurse said to the patient’s daughter that the patient was do not resuscitate? Please God, I heard that wrong.