The art of caring

‘…Hello, hello, can you hear me now…?

‘Yes, yes, yes… lost the signal for a minute, go ahead, you were saying?

‘…She had to have  another x-ray…’

‘What do you mean another x-ray?  She’s been in there for five days already?

‘ She was still complaining about pain in her leg and a nurse said   ‘its all right love, just your hip’

Anyway, they took a fresh  x-ray and a fractured tibia showed up…’

‘What? Her tibia? 

‘Yeah, they missed that on admission’

‘ Brilliant, great news that is! We can hit them for some bloody compensation!   A right cock up! Medical negligence  that's what that is!  With any luck she could end up with pneumonia!  Listen, you get onto patient liaison and register a complaint !’

‘No problem, I’ll find out what floor  patient liaison is on and sort it out.  Anyway, have you found anything at the house yet?

‘ Not yet, the place is like a tip, no wonder she fell over and…’

‘ Cash?  Any will?  Bank account details?  You know…anything like pension credit, heating allowance?  Remember we got 10 grand from her a few months back…? 

‘I’ll tell you what…I’ll have another good look around.   In the meantime you say to the staff I’m sorting out a stair lift and other adaptations for a return home.   Tell them I have already knocked a few walls down for access.  That will keep the OT department happy, no need for a home visit and they won’t have to spend any money.  Plus, we don’t want Social Service’s involved  in any discharge plans.    I will see a solicitor on Monday and sort out power of attorney or something like that.   I’ll tell them she is a vulnerable adult being assessed for  emerging dementia and we need to look after her financial affairs.  The last thing we want is for the social interfering and  telling us the house needs to be sold to pay for some bloody  nursing care.

Hello, hello, can you still hear  me…?