Last week GranthamMatters carried a story headed Elderly patient denied access to toilet.
It told of an elderly gent found pooing in the bushes at Grantham hospital after being refused access to toilet, he had been given laxatives for the procedure he was due to have.
It appears he was too early for his appointment so he was not allowed in and he couldn’t go to the toilets in the urgent treatment centre because then he wouldn’t be allowed in the Covid free area.
Since then, Nicky Griffith, on behalf of Lincolnshire campaign group Is Anyone Listening?, emailed Andrew Morgan, CEO of United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust about this and mentioned some of the comments on our fb site.
She has received the following reply…
Dear Nicky
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, but I had a few day’s annual leave last week.
The incident involving the elderly gentleman was completely unacceptable. It could and should have been avoided. We have apologised to the gentleman concerned and are dealing directly with him in relation to this incident. This includes an investigation into what happened and how we ensure that it can never happen again to any other patient.
In relation to patients waiting outside when winter comes, this will not be allowed to happen. My estates and operations colleagues are working on ensuring that there are procedures and arrangments in place to avoid such occurrences. We do still need to maintain our ‘Green’ site status and avoid unnecessary footfall where we can, but this will not involve patients waiting out in the cold.
In relation to the chemotherapy patients, it would be helpful if you could provide any more detail if you have it, such as dates or names of patients. We have been unable to track down any examples of where this set of circumstances has happened. More details would therefore be helpful. We certainly do not want chemotherapy sessions having to be re-arranged due to the actions of our security staff.
Thank you for bringing these matters to my attention. I hope you will see that we are indeed listening.
Kind regards
Andrew Morgan
Chief Executive
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
How about Andrew, once your investigation is complete, instead of saying that ‘lessons have been learnt’, you sack the incompetent employee who obviously lacks effective intelligence and empathy and then look at HR who employed this person in the first instance. It’s called leadership.