Dementia, acute retention and indwelling catheter one year ago, tolerated well but inevitable UTIs. Recent hospital admission pulled catheter out and hospital did not recath. Now has 3 litre daily output and severe wetting. Mobility issues so agreed to recath but District Nurse asked GP who does not know the patient and suggest convene which will not be tolerated. Has anyone experience of this?
Hi,
Thank you for your question.
I have spoken to some professional Nurses about this, and this is their response:
Assuming the patient in question is male, the catheterisation would have been to relieve the retention. Management of acute retention is carried out by medical teams, such as GP/Urologist. Certainly, the GP would be able to decide if recatheterisation is warranted at this point in time.
In order to diagnose a neurogenic bladder, the GP would refer to a specialist. The incontinence is probably related to the dementia & the mobility issues.
The District Nurses can manage continence issues & also refer on to a Continence Specialist Nurse, if they feel it is warranted. If the gentleman is no longer in retention, a sheath system is a good way of managing the incontinence. However, not all men will tolerate this method. Therefore, use of continence pads may be the best solution. Again, the District Nurses can help with this.
