UKC

A friend suffered a bad accident while hiking up Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons last Easter.  She fell 100m off one of the approach ridges. 

She broke both ankles, her knee, her wrist, 9 ribs and 6 vertabrae - but fortunately no head injuries.  She was a fit and active 73 year old but is now bed ridden.  She has had multiple operations and has spent two months in hospital.  What she needs now is very active physiotherapy in a rehabilitation hospital to regain her strength and mobility.  Instead she has been discharged to her home with some but not enough physio.

Has anyone any experience of good rehabilitation care?  Are there any hospitals that specialise in this?  She lives in Bristol but there does not seem to be any appropriate NHS care in this area.

Allthough this may well not be relevant, (I am a man in my 40s and my injuries are not nearly as extensive as your freind) I thought I'd share some recent experience of NHS physio that may be of use. I recently had a bad accident from which I am likely to recover fully from but only if I really focus on regaining mobility and strength over the next 6 to 9 months. Its been 8 weeks post accident for me and I've seen an NHS physio twice, who have given me a few basic stretches. I'm not criticising them, they are incredibly risk adverse, cautious, very busy, and only interested in getting me functional rather than back to the active lifestyle I'm used to which is all perfectly understandable. If I'd left it with them I suspect it would be well over a year if not longer before I climbed again. Again I'm not criticising, they have been very nice and helpful, but their priorities are different to mine.

Conversely I know a good private physio (and am lucky enough to afford it) who I got in touch with as soon as I was out of plaster who is very sporty so understands where I want to get to. Through them I've been on a pretty intensive program (which the NHS were horrified by) which has been absolutely amazing in terms of my recovery.

So in short don't wait for the NHS to sort this out, you will be waiting forever. This however is pretty cold comfort if you can't afford to go private.

My running related injuries are very mild in the grand scheme of things, but I have had the exact same experience as ebdon when comparing NHS with private physio. 

Does she live near a local leisure centre with pool, gym and Pilates classes?

At 73 she should get a good deal on a years membership...with a few private physio sessions and enlisting a couple of sessions with a personal trainer she may be able to set up her own program/schedule.

The answers so far match my impression: the NHS will get people back to being able to doing basic "life" stuff but doesn't prioritise getting active people back to how they were - and so that's the point where you need to look to a private physio if you think more support is needed.

But you said:

so are you saying that the NHS has discharged her without significant further support, but she is "bedridden" and not able to function independently to look after her own basic needs? If that's the case, that sounds like something *has* gone wrong and it would be worth pushing to figure out why she isn't being given more initial support.

so are you saying that the NHS has discharged her without significant further support, but she is "bedridden" and not able to function independently to look after her own basic needs? 

Unfortunately not that uncommon. My mother was discharged twice and she couldn't lift a glass to her lips. Support was suggest at 2 x 15 min each day.

I think you have to be realistic here - this kind of care is not going to be available on the NHS and she'll need to look at private options.

At 73 years old the aim will be to see if someone can go to the toilet, wash and dress independently.

As an example the local rehabilitation hospital takes people after things like strokes and fractures that aren't quite ready to go home from the main hospital and is a stop gap between either home +/- carers or a care/nursing home.