Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Hospital blasted over patient’s death
A Monklands Hospital patient died after she was given penicillin – despite doctors being told she was allergic to the medication.
NHS Lanarkshire has been slammed over the“serious failings”in the care of the woman, who died in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
The 68-year-old woman, referred to as Mrs A in a watchdog report, was taken to hospital in December 2014 suffering increased breathlessness.
She was then given a dose of penicillin despite her husband telling ambulance and hospital staff about her allergy.
The mistake was then not noticed until the woman’s daughter, a nurse herself, read her mother’s medical notes and saw she had been given Amoxicillin, a penicillin antibiotic, earlier in the day.
She immediately told nurses about the mistake but they “failed to take corrective action and to conduct increased observations”and there was also failure to record the incident. Mrs A died one week later. NHS Lanarkshire has now apologised for the failings to Mrs A’s family after a report by Scotland’s public services ombudsman upheld all of their complaints and issued several recommendations.
The board acknowledged the woman was“unreasonably prescribed and administered” Amoxicillin when she“had a known allergy”, that the response from medical and nursing staff was“deficient”and that there were failures in record-keeping.
The ombudsman report says: “The failure by staff to follow drug administration policies was a serious incident and represented serious failings in care. I was concerned by the serious failings identified and in view of these failings, I upheld all of the complaints.”
Irene Barkby, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions, said:“We aim to provide the highest standard of care at all times and therefore deeply regret any instance where we fail to meet this standard.
“It is clear from this report that the care and service we provided fell below the standards expected from NHS Lanarkshire.
“We fully accept the Ombudsman’s recommendations and will once again be writing to apologise to the family for the failings identified and for the distress caused.
“Since January 2015, a great deal of work has taken place to avoid similar incidents including introducing robust measures to enhance medicine management.”