Care Opinion

Stroke team and support

Posted By Christine980

"Stroke team and support"

About: Comm Hosp Wards (Evesham) / Therapy Services Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust / Community Stroke Service Queen Elizabeth Hospital / General surgery West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance Worcestershire Royal Hospital / Rehabilitation

(as a service user),

My husband had a stroke and I’d like to highlight the excellent, good and bad service. 

Firstly the the 999 operators was excellent and arranged for 2 ambulance teams to be with me within minutes of me finding my husband in the garden. They instantly took over my husband’s care, treating him so efficiently and while also caring for my welfare. He was taken to Worcester royal hospital where he had 2 scans.

It seemed like forever before they gave us an update but it probably wasn’t. They did say there was nothing they could do but he was transferred to the QE Birmingham where the service he received was second to none. From the surgeon who operated and kept me informed to the staff that cared for him, physio teams that got him out of bed and standing. He was then transferred back to Worcester Hospital and continued to receive excellent care and support despite having a fall getting out of bed. Again the physio team got him walking and on his feet within days.

He then commenced his final hospital journey to Evesham hospital, Izod ward where things did declined in some areas. Staff were lovely and did their best however they were let down but the support services. Physio and OH services were excellent and so was the staff member from the speech therapy team. He went over and above to help my husband.

My husband was due to be accessed for his eating before he left Worcester but this was on the day he left so I understand this was not possible however Izod ward assured me he would be assessed on the Monday, that then moved to Tuesday and I kept getting excuses.

In fact he was never assessed and eventually went home. I complained to the manager who I felt just made excuses and did not have the correct facts about how my husbands meals were chosen. In fact it turned out they could only cater for mush or normal diets at Evesham and not bite size as my husband should have been given. He was given the same mush every meal. In fact the girl had gone sick and they had no one to access him, why could they not tell me that?

Then he was sent home into the care of the community stroke support team. His speech was lead by a lovely staff member who worked hard to help my husband and I have seen some excellent progress. It is very sad that I was expected to buy software to help my husband's development, I did and I do think it is excellent but had I not the funds he would have missed out. Another staff member lead his physio developed and she was brilliant. She went over and above to improve my husband's walking, arm and shoulder mobility as well as providing an device to stimulate his finger movement. She brought in additional support and went over and above and should be credited for this.

I am very sad that this support from his SALT and Physio and all the support assistants has now finished when my husband is no where near ready to continue his life.

I understand it’s not this teams fault however it is very disappointing. I understand he should get some support for physio in about 6 weeks and further speech therapy will be in 6 months time but he needs it now and he could decline with the delay. Follow on support should take over immediately.  

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Responses

Response from Sarah Hudson, Integrated Service Lead for Stroke, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust 4 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Sarah Hudson
Integrated Service Lead for Stroke, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust,
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Submitted on 12/08/2024 at 18:03
Published on Care Opinion on 13/08/2024 at 07:39

picture of Sarah Hudson

Dear Christine

Thanks you for your feedback regarding your experience of your husband's care and rehab throughout the Stroke Pathway. I am the Integrated Services Manager responsible for the Community Stroke Service and this sort of feedback is crucial to us in developing the service based on personal experience of patients and family.

It was lovely to hear that you felt that both Rosy (Speech and language therapist) and Lucy (physio) supported so well in your husband's progress. I will feed this back to both of them and give Lucy particular praise for going above and beyond.

I have to agree with you, that expecting families to purchase things that will aid in their recovery is not equitable but we are sadly currently not financed for this to be offered within the NHS. I absolutely also agree with you that we should be supporting stroke survivors for far longer than 6 weeks if there are still rehab needs there. We realise that this is distressing for patients and families when their lives have already been turned upside down from the trauma of a stroke.

In October, we are commencing our next piece of work within our Stroke Programme Board where the spotlight will be on rehabilitation in the community. Some of my aims are to highlight some of the inequitable treatments that only people can access if they can afford to and the injustice of providing therapy for a maximum of 6 weeks. I want to be providing the national Integrated Services Community Stroke Service model, which states that stroke survivors and their families should be supported for up to 6-months based on need - but this too requires investment. It will take time to gather evidence and write a business plan but it will include the issues that you have raised.

I'm sure that my colleagues responsible for other areas of the stroke pathway will respond. I hope that your husband continues to make progress and and that you both have a full-filled life after stroke.

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Response from Marie Capper, Regional Head of Patient Experience, West Midlands Ambulance Service 4 months ago
Marie Capper
Regional Head of Patient Experience,
West Midlands Ambulance Service

Submitted on 13/08/2024 at 08:30
Published on Care Opinion at 08:30

Dear Christine,

Thank you for your feedback regarding the ambulance service and I do wish your husband well.

If you would like the Trust to share your experience with the staff members I would be grateful if you could contact the Patient Experience Team when convenient to you, on telephone number 0300 303 0996 or email pals@wmas.nhs.uk

Kindest regards

Marie Capper

Head of Patient Experience

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Response from Jon Hyam, Specialist Occupational Therapist, Team Leader, Worcestershire Stroke Rehabilitation Centre, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust 4 months ago
Jon Hyam
Specialist Occupational Therapist, Team Leader, Worcestershire Stroke Rehabilitation Centre,
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Submitted on 13/08/2024 at 14:37
Published on Care Opinion at 15:12

Dear Christine,

Thank you so much for your feedback. My name is Jonathan and I'm the Team Leader for the Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy team at Evesham Community Hospital. I am so pleased to hear that you thought the in-patient OT and Physio support your husband had was excellent. I have fed this back to our team as feedback like this provides such as positive reinforcement for the all the hard work that goes into rehabilitation.

I can understand your frustrations and agree wholeheartedly with both yours and Sarah's comments that our stroke survivors should be receiving specialist support beyond 6 weeks and as Sarah has indicated there are plans in place to explore this further.

You have both been through so much and worked so hard to get to where you are now and the fact that you have taken the time to reflect on your experience and provide this feedback is so incredibly valuable, and will support and enable us to push for change. I would like to wish you and your your husband the very best and that he continues to make progress.

With best wishes

Jon

Jonathan Hyam

Specialist Occupational Therapist, Team Leader

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Response from Lisa Thomas, Clinical Lead, Speech and Language Therapy, ECH Therapy, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust. 3 months ago
Lisa Thomas
Clinical Lead, Speech and Language Therapy, ECH Therapy,
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust.

Submitted on 27/08/2024 at 10:21
Published on Care Opinion at 10:38

Thank you for providing feedback to us on Care Opinion regarding your husband’s stay at Evesham Community Hospital.

I have been asked to respond to your comments regarding your husband’s Speech & Language Therapy needs during his inpatient stay. I am the Clinical Lead for the provision of Speech and Language Therapy both in Evesham and the Community.

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer feedback which I will pass back. It is always pleasing for the team to receive such positive feedback and I'm sure they will be delighted to hear of your kind comments.

I'm really sorry to read about your dissatisfaction with the standard of the modified meals. These meals are not made on site due to the very specific and stringent modified texture requirements. I have taken the opportunity to investigate this further with our Catering Manager. We provide different options on different days which is recorded centrally in the Catering Department so that meals are rotated for individual patients. It would be unfair of me however, to say that there is the same variety of choice as per the normal food options provided on the ward trolleys. The food options for the pre-prepared meals are limited and particularly so with the pre-prepared dessert options. This is currently the subject of a wider discussion into improving our catering services and your comments and feedback have been of value to us on this matter. Thank you.

Swallow assessments are not routinely carried out every day and this would be true of all Speech and Language Therapy Services in stroke rehabilitation provision. Our assessments and recommendations are based on several assessed elements that involve both feeding behaviours and swallow function and allow for a review of patient tolerance of upgraded recommendations. The swallow reviews with your husband do fall in line with our service provision and made allowance for interim monitoring by ward staff for signs and symptoms of aspiration and/or swallow difficulty.

I can only apologise that your request to meet with a member of the Speech and Language Team was not passed on from the ward, and I can imagine the frustration that this may have caused you. I do hope however, that you found the meeting with Natalie from the team helpful, and gave you the opportunity to observe and discuss your husband’s swallow presentation.

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Update posted by Christine980 (a service user)

Thanks for responding but sadly my husband was never assessed for his bite once while at Evesham hospital so he was still on mush ( baby style food) for his duration of stay.

I totally understood that nurses & staff could only give him what had been advised but my concern was that no one was assessing him.

However magically when he came home he was able to eat normal food.

Response from Lisa Thomas, Clinical Lead, Speech and Language Therapy, ECH Therapy, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust. 3 months ago
Lisa Thomas
Clinical Lead, Speech and Language Therapy, ECH Therapy,
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust.

Submitted on 27/08/2024 at 16:47
Published on Care Opinion on 28/08/2024 at 08:16

Thank you for coming back to us.

I think it would be useful to continue this conversation offline so we can go into specific patient details. You can contact myself on 01386 502098 or my direct email is Lisa.thomas37@nhs.net or if you would like to take a more formal approach you can contact PALS on 01905 681517 or Email WHCNHS.PALS@nhs.net.

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