My father is a quadriplegic who recently had to stay in hospital for pneumonia.  At home he gets 24 hours 1 to 1 care.  Since his spinal injury has caused him to be quadriplegic and he cannot urinate or defecate by himself he has an indwelling catheter for urination and manual evacuation for his excrement (poo). 

Despite being told he is quadriplegic he was given a buzzer to press by the nurses.  When we told them he is quadriplegic they said he can press the buzzer.  NO he CANNOT since none of his limbs work. 

He was left in the Medical Receiving Unit in an isolated room with the door closed.  Calling for help with no one to help him.  The ward so busy and he wasn't frequently checked on for long periods of time.  He has pneumonia and mucous. How is he supposed to do the following:-

- spit out mucous?

- wipe his eyes?

- drink water?

- answer the phone?

- blow his nose?

- scratch his face?

You get the idea of the picture that I'm trying to paint above.

What is required is a Breath-call device used in spinal units to get the nurse's attention.  Paralysed patients in these situations would benefit from 1-2-1 support.

Also he needs Manual Evacuation so as not to trigger autonomic dysreflexia which is a life threatening condition if not managed correctly.  Nurses are not permitted to do the manual evacuation, however doctors can but they refused to carry out this procedure.  My father having to ask for this procedure to be carried out by the staff and them not wanting to do it is degrading treatment and torture which falls under the Human Rights Act 1998 (Article 3).

Alternatively, policy needs to be adapted for such high level need patient to ALLOW the 1-2-1 in-house nurses due to the condition of the my father.

The above are reasonable adjustments as part of Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) now known as Equality Act 2010.

When my father has to visit the hospital, the spinal injury unit which manages paralysed patients needs to be contacted straight-away so the nurses and doctors can be briefed on how to handle Autonomic Dysreflexia symptoms and conditions.  When my father has to stay as in-patient, then a training session needs to be setup ASAP with the spinal injury unit to be guided how my father needs to be taken care of throughout the day with various tasks.