‘Callous nurses’ at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee left a 92-year-old woman with dementia and arthritis to eat her roast dinner with her fingers rather than take time to cut up her food for her, it has been claimed.
The woman’s shocked daughter entered the ward on Sunday night to find Mary Anderson, known as Mona, desperately struggling to eat her dinner while nurses ignored her plight.
Mrs Anderson suffered a heart problem on Hogmanay and was taken to Ninewells.
Her daughter Enid Anderson lives in France and immediately travelled to Scotland.
However, she said she has been shocked by the apparent lack of care given to her mother in Ward 6 at the hospital.
She said her mother was left in a dishevelled state with her dressing gown half open in a mixed ward for several hours.
Even worse, she was forced to eat her dinner with her hands because staff had not bothered to cut up her food, despite knowing that she suffers from arthritis in her hands and could not do so herself.
“The visiting hours are between 3pm and 8pm but between 5pm and 6pm there are no visitors as it is meal time,” said Ms Anderson.
“I arrived at the ward just before 6pm to find my mother trying to shovel food into her mouth with her fingers because she couldn’t eat her roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with the fork they had given her.
“She had been sitting in her chair for six hours and her dressing gown was half open.
“When the nurse finally appeared she said she had been on a break. My mother had been sitting entirely unattended for the best part of an hour.
“The food hadn’t been cut up at all for her. We were told it was our fault because we had chosen the food for her the day before.”
Ms Anderson added that she also has serious concerns about the standard of care her frail mother has been receiving.
“My mother either had a heart attack or an angina attack on Hogmanay but I think she would be better off back in her nursing home by now,” she said.
“She has been catheterised because they said they were measuring urine production compared to how many liquids she takes on. We looked at her notes and, although they are measuring urine, they are not taking a note of what she has been drinking.
“She has dementia and no short-term memory, so we made up signs to let her know she was safe and that we knew where she is but they have disappeared.
“We also told the nurses that she has always been known as Mona and doesn’t respond to Mary but they have ignored that, too.
“I am just incandescent with rage that people who are meant to be in a caring profession could be so callous.”
NHS Tayside has pledged a full investigation into the incident.
Director of nursing for NHS Tayside delivery unit Maggie Simpson said, “I am very concerned to hear about this and will make sure this family’s concerns are investigated fully.”