A DUDLEY man has told of the sad demise his elderly mother with dementia suffered after being discharged with ‘no choice’ to a nursing home after a brief hospital stay.
The woman, from Coseley, was sent to Ryland View in Tipton after a spell in Russells Hall Hospital following a fall at home where she’d been living independently with daily support from her family and a care package of two visits a day from social services.
Her son, who has asked not to be named, told how he moved heaven and earth to try to get his mum back home after her discharge to Ryland View, which has a CQC rating of ‘requires improvement’.
He said she was given no choice about being sent to that particular home and he had no idea why she was sent there – saying he’d initially thought it was for respite.
READ MORE: Elderly patients discharged from hospital with no choice
He said he was told at the hospital that she could not return home, although she hadn’t suffered any physical injuries in the fall or any loss of mobility.
The Dudley-based businessman said he was “disgusted” to find that on her arrival at the sprawling nursing home she’d been hoisted into bed despite being able to walk.
He told the News she was “scared and afraid” when he found her and he described his mum’s stay in Bloomfield House at the home as an “absolutely horrific experience”.
Some four to five weeks on, after contacting social services to try to get his mother back to her own home, he thought he’d achieved his wish for her, but he said in that time her condition declined.
He said: “Mom had gone too far. Because of the experience mom just deteriorated.”
Despite managing to get her home she ended up back at Ryland View, due to her escalating condition.
After the ‘discharge to assess’ period was up, a place was found at a different care home which the family described as “a lovely place”.
Sadly, the woman had another fall and broke her hip, winding back up at Russells Hall on New Year’s Eve. She was after this able to return to her chosen nursing home but she passed away in March this year, aged 87.
Her heartbroken son said: “It was so sad.”
He said staff at the home were “wonderful caring people” but the “damage was done” and he told how he felt his mother was “treated so badly” during her final chapter that it left him “drained”.
Prior to her hospital admission she’d had to wait for eight hours for an ambulance to arrive, he said, adding that doctors appeared stretched in A&E at Russells Hall and he said he blames the government for the lack of funding and structure that resulted in his mother’s poor care.
He told the News: “It’s so sad for someone to come to the end of their life and experience that.”
He said although it’s often assumed people with dementia don’t remember – “they remember the upset of that moment”.
He described his mother as “very sad” in her final days and said the whole experience of trying to fight to try to get the best outcome for her had left him “exhausted”.
He said: “They wore me down. They broke me.”
He said there had been no need to send her to a nursing home after her initial hospital stay and he added: “If mom still lived at home, she would still be here.”
Advinia Health Care, which runs Ryland View Care Home, said it does not comment on “the confidential private care and medical details of individual residents, either past or present”.
The company said the home’s current CQC rating of ‘requires improvement’ dates back to August 2021, and since then there has been a change of senior leadership and a review of governance, training and systems.
The Department for Health and Social Care deferred comment to the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust which runs Russells Hall Hospital.
Chief executive of the Dudley Group, Diane Wake, said “patients who need care after hospital are assessed and placed in the most appropriate place that can cater for their complex care needs” and that “every effort” is made to ensure personal circumstances are considered but bed availability plays a part.
She added: “We work tirelessly with our partners in primary care and local authority to ensure patients are transferred to the most appropriate place available.”
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