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Health is urgently investigating the treatment of a 69-year-old woman after her daughter claimed that the care she received over the past two years was so "appalling" that it left her saying she "just wants to die".
The daughter – who is not being named to protect her mother's anonymity – decided to speak out publicly as a “last resort” after she felt that her previous complaints had “not been listened to”.
She claimed that her mother has been “seriously let down” by the Health department’s “lack of care” over the past two years – during which she has been moved between hospital wards, her home, and various care homes.
She said that the level of care has repeatedly been “well below the standard we expect in a wealthy island” and has left her mother “scared, helpless, and embarrassed on many occasions”.
“The lack of handover, change of treatment and neglect of care has been astonishing,” she said.
“Complaints have been raised and meetings held with medical staff to no avail.”
After queries from Express, the Government yesterday confirmed that the concerns are being investigated as a "priority".
Pictured: "The lack of handover, change of treatment and neglect of care has been astonishing."
Health and Community Services said: “We take all matters of concern relating to hospital care seriously and have investigated this particular matter as a priority.”
The woman's mother – who has limited mobility due to multiple sclerosis – was first admitted to hospital in October 2021 following a fall.
The next month, she was sent home with a plaster cast and boot but unfortunately had another fall that week which resulted in her being taken back into hospital.
The islander said that her mother was discharged to “fend for herself” despite having a sprained ankle and fractured knee. However, the pensioner was soon readmitted to hospital after family members complained to the Health Minister that she was not fit for discharge.
Whilst waiting for a care home plan to be put in place – which was reportedly "never finalised” – the mother was moved to a residential care home “where she was happy" until springtime 2023.
However, the woman's daughter claims that, after this point, “several changes took place and the care home deteriorated”.
She explained that her mother “had a few more falls which ended up with her back in hospital, after which the care home refused to have her back due to changes in her care needs”.
Pictured: The woman was moved to a residential care home, where she was initially "happy", but her daughter said this care "deteriorated".
The daughter said that this left her mother homeless in May 2023 and again in June 2023 due to “no suitable nursing homes being available that could accommodate her increased needs”.
In September 2023, the pensioner was moved into an Andium property, but she became ill again and was readmitted into hospital.
“This meant giving up the flat and becoming a bed blocker again,” her daughter explained.
The mother has “since been moved from ward to ward”, with her “medications changed on many occasions” depending on which doctor was treating her.
"My mother and her large family witnessed daily the lack of privacy, dignity, respect, empathy, and lack of handover from most of the staff on most wards which she'd been placed on," the daughter said.
"We complained face to face and in writing and nothing ever changed."
She described her mother’s move to Samarès Ward as the “final nail in the coffin”, claiming that the pensioner’s “safeguarding has been jeopardised”.
Pictured: The move to Samarès Ward was described as the “final nail in the coffin”.
“She has been left in embarrassing situations,” the daughter said. “[My mother] has become a shadow of her feisty self, she's been left unwashed and generally neglected.”
She described a recent situation where she called her mother in the evening, only to find her "sobbing as she had been left unwashed all day".
She added that, on another occasion, her sister had visited the ward "to find she'd been left sitting on a bed pan for at least 75 mins".
The daughter continued: “We have made many complaints over the last few years of appalling care, and they have not been listened to, so this is now our last resort and that is to confirm that Jersey is failing its people terribly.
“My mother walked into hospital and now can no longer walk and the words we hear from her continuously are, ‘I just want to die’."
Pictured: "We complained face to face and in writing and nothing ever changed."
She added: "There are only so many apologies we can accept, which is why we are now resorting to this.
"Why should we let our mother who went into hospital walking with a frame, rot in a bed... because on paper, she's 'fit for discharge'?
"The fact she’s depressed, in pain, prone to severe bedsores and confused... means absolutely nothing.
"We will no longer accept this appalling treatment – our mother is a human being."
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