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Just in case anyone decides to visit mom at St. Luke's... she's currently warded at NUH... again. This time one level up - Ward 53... Bed 48. We returned to NUH this morning in a private ambulance for her appointment at the general surgery department... but because she's febrile with a slight temperature of 37.7 degrees, the doctor at St. Luke requested that the doctors at NUH find out the cause of the fever. St. Luke, being a rehabilitation hospital, isn't really equipped to handle such cases... they on their part have done quite a bit, sending samples of blood and urine for testing, etc... yup.

The doctor at GS found nothing wrong with the PEG site (the place where they placed the feeding tube into the abdomen) and more or less concluded that the site couldn't have caused the sepsis... and so isn't favourable to the idea of admitting her into the hospital as a GS case. He called up the doctor at the neurosurgery department and asked if mom should be admitted by their department to track the cause of fever... but since mom has been cleared of her shunt, she's considered cleared from the neuro side... so nopes. Not under GS... not under neuro... how? They decided to refer her to the A&E department... and afterwhich she would be followed up by a totally new team of doctors from the medical side as more or less a new case.

I'm actually quite amused la... if that's what they call patient-centered service. Hahaha... but yea, fully understand the runnings of the hospital and why it has to be so.

And so mom spent the whole morning and early afternoon waiting in the fever tent (set up ever since the SARS period) for her bed to be ready... and I got attended to by Ben, the quality executive staff of the hospital. Why the special treatment... hmm. Well, aunt wrote in to the hospital regarding her previous stay which ended not so long ago... they are currently investigating the case... and so since mom's back now, I guess the quality department has to ensure that she gets the necessary treatment and bed-turning.

Ben's really friendly... and I know he's genuine. Had a good conversation with him throughout... asked him about the healthcare profession in general... interesting. Got to talk a lot partly because the wait for the bed was really long... but finally mom's able to be transferred to the ward.

And so there she is right now... resting. Even though it's a class lower than the previous round, the treatment from the nurses from that ward seems to be better... and the nurses there radiate more friendliness and warmth. The ward even has a patient-turning team that does nothing else but goes around turning bedridden patients from side to side every two to three hours! Sheesh... should have admitted mom to class C the previous time round... then perhaps she wouldn't have developed those sores. This is so... but then again.

Hopefully she'll be well to return to St. Luke's soon... or rather, home.