thebrit123

Just found out the other day that my mother has cancer and is currently in a NHS hospital. It is a very hard situation to deal with being so far away.

Currently she is undergoing radiation for the cancer. My younger sister, who also lives in the US, has just flown out. She wants to help my other sister out.

I am trying to find the best way of contacting my mother to try to cheer her up. She can't get out of the hospital bed and is in one of those wards so does not have her own phone. My older sister, said that she knows they have TV/Phone carts that can be taken bedside. Does anyone know if these can receive overseas calls. Currently, I contact family using a Costco International calling card (IDT) using my Verizon cellphone.

Has anyone else gone thru this type of scenario and know of ways to communicate to sick relatives?

I do plan on traveling out to help when asked. She is going to need a lot of rehabilitation.

Mummy in the foothills

I spoke to my Dad when he was in the hospital, no idea if they had bedside phones. I called the ward and was talking to the nurse, she was telling me all about how he was doing and they took a minute or two then he came on the phone.

RICH

It was a few years ago, 2007? but yes, I called Mum in hospital. The nurse station had a wireless phone, they took to her. They were very understanding when told I was abroad.

I also do/did the IDT card on my verizon cell.

Bayleaf_01

sorry to hear your news. Unfortunately I am in exactly the same situated with my father-in-law. My sister-in-law is in the UK so has been a tremendous help. The easiest way we have found so far is to buy FIL a contact smartphone. That way FIL can access email and internet (impossible in Preston hospital) and we can ring him directly. We have Verizon contracts with international calling, which so far seems to be reasonably priced.
NHS have been completely useless when asked for help with people ringing in!

thebrit123

Thanks for all your inputs. A friend at work, suggested that I purchase some type of prepaid smartphone that can do skype. My mother, who is in her 70's, does not own a cellphone and would not know how to use one.

I will try contacting the hospital to see if they have suggestions.

Moonshadow_Girl

Sorry to hear about your mum. DH's mum was in the hospital early last year. We just made arrangements when family was present at the hospital with her to call her on their respective cell phones. Good luck to your mum.

thebrit123

My younger sister in the USA, who is visiting my mum for a week, called me yesterday saying that she can't call back to the USA. Work gave her a Iphone with a limited international calling plan. She does not want to use these minutes to call her boyfriend as it is supposed to be for work.

I told her to download the Magic Jack app as it allows for calling the US from the UK for free as it using VOIP. She is going to take it to the hospital tomorrow and see if she can us it for me to talk to my mum. I told her it will only work if she can get wireless in the ward.

Keeping my fingers crossed that they have wireless so I could talk to my mother before little sister comes back to the US next week. They are also going to check if the nurses station has a way for me to talk to her. My mother is near the nurses station so maybe they have a cordless phone that I could call from the USA.

RICH

Just make sure you get the phone number at the nurse station. It is the NHS but it is not the 1950's

thebrit123

Yes, will try to get the number and ask my family if I can call it. Another option I am looking at is to use a prepaid calling card.

I use the Costco IDT calling card for calling from the USA to UK. Looking on the iDT website, they offer prepaid calls that can be used to call from overseas like the UK.

This card would have to be mailed to my family, who would have to program it into a prepaid cellphone. It offers local access numbers so it would just eat up local minutes on the cell phone. My aunt, once gave my mother a small flip phone which she didn't know or want to use. My family are no tech savvy so it may be too hard to get them to program the access codes etc in speed dial on a phone for my mother to use. My mother also has very bad eyesight and won't be able to work with small buttons.

Sounds like for me the easy option would be for me to find a way of calling her.

A friend a work, who just came back from Wales, got some input from a friend over there. He suggested a prepaid cell phone.

My aunt works in the hospital, which is lucky for us, so she may be able to help with the phone situation. They said that they do have some type of phone cart/tv device which sounds like one of those coin phone you get in those old phone boxes. Not too sure if I would be able to call this device or if it is only used for out going calls.

RICH

Seriously. I know it is a stress full situation, but it is easy. You can call the ward and speak to Mum whenever you want. Same as if you were calling her at home. Hospital X, ward Y, patient Z .This is thebrit123 calling from USA please pass me on to mother.

Ozzidoc

Sorry to hear about your Mum.

The main barrier to you speaking to your Mum initially or speaking to the nurses involved in her care will be the ward's staffing level.

There may not be anyone available to answer the ward phone.

DoI - physician currently employed by the NHS.

You need to get your Mum's bedside phone number, which will be part of the entertainment/tv system, and then call her directly.

thebrit123

Thanks for this info. Have yet to figure out the best way. Had a family conference call yesterday discussing power of attorney. Was asked if I wanted to be the back on this plan. Have decided that my older sister and aunt have power of attorney as it will be almost impossible to handle this when overseas.

My mother is getting radiation on the cancer in the back and has just had a biopsy in a lymph node under her arm. This is to determine the primary source of her cancer as it may be in her breast. She is basically bed ridden in the hospital and can't walk which is emotional tearing me up inside.

Not too sure when I will need to go over there from the US. She is in good hands with my aunt, who works in the hospital, my sister from Scotland and my younger sister from the US.

Ash UK/US

That is kinda a blanket statement to make, maybe you had issues with an individual hospital? When my mum was in Bishop Auckland & Darlington hospitals the nursing staff where very understanding about our abnormal situation and allowed us to use the ward phones. As where the nurses caring for my dad in the RVI, Middlesbrough and Darlington hospitals. I also talked to my sister when she was an impatient at Darlington & Durham hospitals.

Ash UK/US

Each NHS trust is different but the ones I have seen are far from 'coin phones' The ones in the north east work on a pre pay system, one thing I can tell you, from personal experience, calling these phones is EXPENSIVE kinda like calling a mobile in the UK from the US.

Check out link

http://www.southtees.nhs.uk/hospital...entertainment/

GeoffM

Definitely different then! Swindon GWH and Oxford JRH cost a bomb to dial out but they're relatively cheap to dial to the patient. Trouble is, the system is so unreliable that the manufacturers have a permanent person on site to deal with the problems (well, M-F, 9-5 kind of thing). Wifey, as a nurse, was probably asked more times to fix the sodding things than do her actual job. Even when she was a patient herself after our #2 delivery, they came 3 times in 2 days to fix her TV and give her the credit she'd paid for. Mostly she just used her mobile despite not being allowed (though a blind eye is turned on non-critical wards). Probably not much help to the OP, sorry.