Your experience of nursing homes - end of life care

LilyShame

Hi there,

have many of you been through a situation where-by your elderly parent became ill in a nursing home - and how was this dealt with?

we have been through a very distressing situation where our parent became ill in a nursing home but we found out all too quickly that they were very eager to rush the parent away to A & E, and I am concerned about their own motivations for doing so (did they just need the bed?).

I have since learned that some nursing homes are more open to palliative/end of life care within their facility, whilst other nursing homes are uncomfortable with residents dying in their care.

I am interested to know if any of you have been down this road - a road that seems to be brushed under the carpet all too often....

sunbeam

I've no direct experience of nursing homes but my late mother was a few weeks in a 'step down' hospital waiting for a nursing home place a few years ago. They too tried to rush her back to A&E when she was dying, even though A&E could have done nothing for her. I was phoned and told that they were sending her back but not how serious her condition was. Thankfully she died before the ambulance came-otherwise she would have spent her last hours in a chaotic emergency department on a Friday night.

I'm still very angry about the whole experience, not least because about the the doctor who attended her didn't seem to have the vaguest idea of why she was there. Ever since the moment she got to the step down hospital the staff tried to come up with the most ridiculous reasons why they thought she should be transferred back to the general hospital-don't even get me started about the awful time she had there.

My GP was furious when I told him and stated that if she had got a place in our local nursing home she would have been given palliative care and not sent back to A&E under any circumstances. From talking with others that seems to be their general policy.