Any advice please

[smallworld]

Hi,

I know what a variety of members we have on here and am hoping someone can help,

 

I have an elderly relative who is in residential care with dementia, and is being sedated at night.

Earlier this week my relative fell out of bed and broke a hip, and is now in hospital.

My question is, given the sedation, shouldn't there have been bedrails to prevent this happening, and some sort of risk assessment done ?

Three days later, my relative doesn't even have their own nightclothes, don't the care home still have some responsibilty for care ?

 

Sorry if I am being a bit vague about the details, no-one in the family seems to know what the best course of action for complaining is, and the immediate family live a long way away.

I'd be glad of any help,

thanks,

wac

[CarerQuie]

Was your relative in a Care home or a residential home?I ask because a care home has qualified nurses on shift 24/7 and a residential home is more to support elderly people who are able to meet most of their own care needs.The sort of support and care they get is slightly different.

 

Ask them what risk assessment was carried out.The thing is,sometimes people are actually more at risk with bedrails because some dementia patients will try to climb over bedrails.Care staff can't easily watch every single resident all night long because the residents have single rooms and the saff many menial tasks to carry out overnight,too.

 

Often,it's a judgement call as to whether bedrails are a safety measure or more of a danger.

 

In the first instance,I would ask questions of the care provider.xx

[Karen A]

Hi.I used to be a district nurse so can help.You can talk to the care home manager and ask some questions.If you do not get good enough answers write a letter of complaint to the manager.If the home is council run or the care is funded you could also write to the appropriate person at the council.Does the relative have a care plan?What does the plan say about supervision?Strategies to manage wandering/prevent falls?Has an assessment been done re appropriateness of bed rails?Bed rails can be more dangerous in a situation where an individual can climb/fall over the top-however an assessment should be done-if a decision is made that bed rails are not appropriate a plan should be in place to use alternative methods to keep an individual safe.Is sedation prescribed appropriately and given according to a rationale?Is sedation being monitored?Although in theory CarerQuie is right about the difference between care homes and residential homes-in practice the needs of residents are often similar.If a care home accepts residents with dementia they should have a plan/risk assessment for that resident.On the point of bringing in night clothes-it would be very unusual for the home to continue to provide clothes/visit etc.Once the individual is in hospital for a certain number of days the funding may be reduced -very sad but that is the current situation. If you ask some tough questions and do not get an explanation you are happy with put up another post.I am on hols on Mon but will check posts before I go Karen

[smallworld]

Thanks for your help, very useful,

That's a good point about the bed rails though,

I will pass this info on,

Thanks again,

 

wac