Our Caring Health Profession - Somerset NHS Should be Proud

When we listen to the national news we are often confronted with bad reports about the services provided by the NHS. Recently the reports have been about the lack of care provided by professionals who are too busy to worry about their patient's feelings.

I have a different story about the care that was provided to my uncle, Fred Mance (78), of Wincanton in the past few months. In September my uncle was terminally ill with cancer and was admitted to hospital in Yeovil to undergo a major operation. He was in for two weeks and was placed in a side ward. The operation was performed quickly and successfully without complication; this alone is quite an achievement in a man of his age.

For the next two weeks he received constant care from cheerful, caring staff who were always interested in how he felt. On one isolated occasion he felt that a night nurse had rushed him and caused him some discomfort. The hospital had a service called PALS, the Patient Aid and Liaison Service. The PALS was sympathetic and dealt with his concern quickly and effectively and all feelings of resentment were quickly alleviated.

Once Fred no longer needed hospital care he was taken to the Verrington Hospital in Wincanton a short distance from his home. Once again he was place in a side ward. If Carlsberg made hospitals it would be the Verrington. I have never experienced a cleaner, brighter happier environment in my life. The staff again were considerate, caring and thoughtful. Their role was to get him active enough to return home which they did in a few days. They prepared a care plan for him so that he could spend the rest of his life at home and die with his family around him.

Once back at home Uncle Fred received visits from Somerset Care three times a day. These carers helped him remain clean and dignified and kept a record of his condition. He received regular visits from the district nurse service who changed his dressings, administered drugs and monitored his condition, which began to deteriorate quickly at the end of November.

In the last two weeks of his life the carers and nurses not only looked after Uncle Fred, they looked after us his family.

In his last week he was nursed by my wife 24 hours a day while I worked from our home in Surrey. She had very little sleep and often cried. Many of the carers and nurses spent their time supporting her. They gave advice, listened, sympathised and held her hands and hugged her when things were particularly trying. I cannot speak highly enough of the way all these health professionals helped us through a difficult time.

Fred Mance passed away gently and peacefully on Monday 10th December in his home with his family by his side. The same evening a card was passed though the letter box. It came from one of the carers who had helped in his last month. The card complimented us on the care we provided and said "it was lovely to see how loved he was, you both looked after Fred amazingly".

Marks out of ten for care in the NHS? Somerset 10/10; you were all outstanding and the whole country could do with coming to see how you do it.

Thank you.

Robin and Heather Horsfall
Selborne Surrey

Comments

Richard Joyce
Posts: 1

Verrington
Reply #1 on : Sun January 06, 2013, 18:17:57

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I agree with the article completely. This is an extract of an email I wrote (June 2011) keeping former work colleagues up to date on what I had been doing since leaving work:-

The last few weeks have been busy because a long standing friend has been admitted to Wincanton Hospital with prostate cancer – his wife however lives in Martock (1hr round trip) and has pretty much given up driving and so Anna and I now know every inch of the road between the two places. Jack and Eve used to be near neighbors, until they moved, but we have remained closely in touch – it is very sad to see such an active and clever man reduced to a forgetful old inmate – a lot of it could be the painkillers. He is given very high quality care by the staff (and it is very clean and even the cleaners are cheerful) – Wincanton is what we would all like the NHS to be – but sometimes it isn’t.

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