GP Stories - Blocked Catheter
Doing a weekly ward round at a nursing home is interesting that you get to see people in their home and you get to see them very regularly. You tend to remember the patients a lot better and generally build a better relationship because of it. Because of that, you can tend to talk to the residents a lot less formally than you may do a regular patient. I had a elderly man who had a long term catheter whom i was seeing regularly for his skin ailments on his legs. The catheter was due to him not being able to pass urine freely, so it wasn't going anywhere. It normally was getting changed 6-7 weeks by the district nurses but more recently it was needed to be changed several times a week. The nurses at the home had an idea what was causing it however they felt they couldn't broach it with the patient. Every day after lunch, the patient was given 'alone' time with himself and his iPad and then following that, the nurses noticed cloudy sediment within the tubing and bag of t