Bringing Back Dignity - Continence Services 2014

News - 4 November 2014

During late 2013 we heard concerns from the community about problems with the continence service that were affecting people's dignity and quality of life.

What people told us

People reported the following issues with the Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare (HRCH) continence service:

Low quality of Attends continence products

"It does not hold urine for long and it falls apart"

"Less absorbent. Tear easily"

"My mother has to double-up when she wants to go out because quality is so poor they leak- very embarrassing."

Supply issues 

  • There was concern over the inability to meet sudden changes in demand e.g.when patients are acutely unwell. 
  • People also experienced a delay between assessment of need and receipt of continence products

Communication problems

  • Some users of the service experiencing inconsistent information and receiving different information from members of staff from other teams involved e.g. community nursing, NHS Supply Chain.
  • Service users are not always informed of the outcomes of their assessments, of whether or when they will receive continence products.
  • People did not always have a service in place at discharge from inpatient settings which creates anxiety. It is felt that inpatient facilities can sometimes leave patients with unrealistic expectations of the service that they can expect on discharge. 4
  • Both patients and staff have sited communication between LBRuT and HRCH as needing improvements.

Disposal

  • There was confusion over the disposal of incontinence products

Downloads

For further information download the summary below.

To read the HRCH's response to these findings download the response below. 

Issues with continence services
Download (PDF 137 KB)
HRCH response to Continence Service Issues
Download (PDF 336 KB)

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