The daughter of a 99-year-old Angus care home resident with dementia says she is angry at ‘unacceptable treatment’ of her mum after a routine X-ray at Ninewells Hospital.
Sheelagh Wiseman from Birkhill has written to the Scottish Ambulance Service and her MP to highlight the ‘stressful’ incident, in the hope it won’t happen to other patients.
Annie, 99, lives in South Grange nursing home, Monifieth, and was transferred to Ninewells by ambulance for an X-ray last Tuesday morning.
Sheelagh met them there at 12.30pm and Annie’s appointment was complete by 2.45pm.
Yet Annie was not transferred home until nearly 11 hours later at 1.35am. And was effectively ‘abandoned at Ninewells’, says Sheelagh.
“I am not criticising the doctors, nurses or the paramedics. There was absolutely nothing I could complain about her care by Ninewells.
‘So caring’
“When she got taken up there she was fine. But she has dementia, so, after her X-ray, when the nurse said they’d give her a bed to wait for the ambulance, she was a bit agitated at the fact she was in a different place.
“They were so so good with Mum. I can’t say enough about how caring the nurses were. It is the actual system I want to highlight and make people aware of.
“The doctor sent the results to South Grange at 2.45pm. We sat at Ninewells until 5pm. The nurse called twice for an update on when the ambulance would take her home.
“Answer was they couldn’t say. She asked for it to be escalated, but that couldn’t happen.
“By 10pm we thought, OK, she must be getting kept in. But she only went to get an X-ray. Why wasn’t the patient transport available?” Sheelagh continues.
“I realise there are emergencies all over the place and my mum needs to be put in a chair or trolley to be transported. But that should have been a patient transfer ambulance, not an emergency ambulance.
Phonecall at 1.35am
“The NHS is so busy but their system has to change. My mother was basically abandoned at Ninewells and this should not have happened.
“What about people who don’t have anyone who can be there or speak up for them?”
Sheelagh had to go home and asked the nurses to call her when Annie was collected.
“By 10pm I hadn’t heard so took my phone to my bedroom,” Sheelagh explains.
“At 1.35am I received a call from the nurse apologising profusely for calling at that time, to tell me Mum was on her way back to Monifieth.
‘Better solution’
“The system should have allowed for her to be taken to hospital and automatically been put on a return list.
“I could not believe it. She arrived back at the care home at 2.20am. To treat a 99-year-old lady with dementia in this way is unacceptable.
“Someone should review this and come up with a better solution. I have written to the Health Secretary and my MP and the ambulance service.
“I’m not complaining about the paramedics, they’re under extreme pressure to do their job, but the system has to be reviewed in order that this doesn’t happen again.”
‘Apologise for the delay’
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson says: “We would like to apologise for the delay the patient experienced.
“We can confirm we received a call from the patient’s GP to transport her to Ninewells Hospital on June 14. A return scheduled care journey was not requested at that time.
“And due to very high demand on scheduled care transport, as well as wider system pressures, the next available ambulance was assigned.
“We have been in contact with the patient’s daughter privately, to explain the situation and to apologise for the delay.”
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