From Louise Burns, Lake:

I READ with interest in December and January, the County Press articles relating to patients being discharged without GPs being made aware their patients had even been in hospital, why they were in hospital and what the outcome was.

In the January article, the IW NHS Trust medical director, Alistair Flowerdew, said he hoped 90 per cent of patients will have a discharge summary within three working days.

In my recent experience this has not happened and could have caused my mother to become seriously ill or even die.

On December 30, 2019, my mother had an appointment for a CT scan.

We attended the appointment as requested. They did a scan but were not happy with the results, so they did another one after injecting her with some dye. They found that she had had a slight bleed on the brain and we were asked to go to A&E where a doctor would come and talk to us.

The doctor advised us that they were waiting for Southampton to get back to them, as the results had been sent there.

Eventually at around midnight, after some words with the doctors, my mother was put into a bed and in a side ward. She is 86 and a diabetic.

The next day, in the late afternoon, she was admitted to the MAU unit for further monitoring following a MRI scan.

On January 1, at 1pm, we were advised that she was being discharged, no mention of further monitoring or doctor’s visits, just that she had to come off a blood thinning tablet she was on. 

At 5pm, we were given a letter which basically stated, that due to a bleed in the right front lobal, no blood thinners to be taken for six weeks.

I took the letter given to me into my mother’s GP. the following day and requested a call back to find out what happens next. What happens after the 6 weeks

This was the first the GP had heard about the matter.

Sadly, the GP informed me that the first she knew about this was when she read the letter I had handed into our surgery.

The consequences of this could have been highly dangerous. Had it not been for the fact I was there and knew which tablet had to be removed from her blister pack and made sure it happened immediately, could have made the bleed a lot worse which in turn lead to a stroke or worse. My mother is one of the lucky ones, as I was there to deal with her medication. What happens to the patients who have no family or friends to do this?.How many people have to die before something is done?

I have spent the bulk of my working career in computers. It would be so easy to adjust the hospital systems, that as soon as they access anyone’s health records, it sends a message to their GP surgery, to advise that their records have been updated.

Then there is no waiting for 3 days, it is done immediately. Okay it may cost in the first place, but can you honestly put a cost on someone’s Life.                 

Don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.