We want answers over the death of our mum
Mystery letter backs sisters’ concerns over tragic mum
Whistleblower tells Mary Carruthers and Joyce Neil there was an NHS cover-up over their 73-year-old mum Joyce’s death in hospital.
TWO sisters who received an apology for the hospital care of their late mother were later told here was a cover-up over her death.
Mary Carruthers and Joyce Neil raised several complaints about the treatment of their mum, great-grandmother Joyce Neil, 73, who died in April 2014.
Having just reached a legal settlement with the health board, they were concerned when they received an anonymous letter.
It was written on headed health board notepaper telling how there had been a cover-up in the case.
The sisters are concerned the letter backed their position there remain unanswered questions about their mum’s death.
Mary said: “It was never about the money, we just wanted answers, but three years is a long time to keep fighting so we signed the papers.”
The anonymous note arrived after the papers were signed but before they were lodged. It claimed to come from an independent audit group and stated: “We are investigating unexplained deaths of vulnerable, elderly patients.”
The letter said “hundreds of staff” had raised concerns of clinical malpractice which had been kept quiet.
And it stated: “We have access to internal files which shows your case has been covered up.”
Mary said: “The letter was really upsetting but part of it is a relief. Someone is telling us we have been right all along that mum was neglected.”
Joyce was taken to Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, after her daughters noticed a slight droop in her face and persuaded her GP she should be checked out at hospital in case it was a stroke. They had been trying to convince GPs she was ill for some time.
But a stroke was ruled out as being the cause of her illness.
Joyce had anxiety but her medication for this condition was removed in hospital and she became more anxious as a result.
Her daughters felt there was a lack of urgency in the treatment of their mum and witnessed her getting weaker each day.
One doctor realised she was dehydrated and prescribed an intravenous drip but, in her anxiety, Joyce was moving about, so it regularly came out. Her daughters would find it dripping on the floor or on a chair. They complained that water was too far away for her to reach and her lips were cracked from dehydration.
One nurse suggested she had a carcinoma in her chest but another said there was none.
Others suggested kidney injury and lesions on her liver but Joyce and Mary never got to speak to a consultant because, they say, he refused to meet them. A CT scan was also repeatedly cancelled because of the kidney problem.
Joyce said: “She kept begging us for help. Sometimes she would be lying halfway down the bed unable to get up and other times she would be sitting up with no slippers or underwear on with a soiled nightie or bedclothes.
“She looked like she had been abandoned.”
The day before her death, she told her daughters: “I am dying.”
Joyce said: “A nurse took her obs and they were bad. She said she’d get a doctor but none came.”
Despite their concern, Joyce and Mary were asked to leave the hospital as it was dinnertime.
Mary said: “We left but returned about 7pm. She was very agitated and we could see she was gravely ill but a nurse told us, ‘She is worse when you are here.’
“I phoned again about 11pm and was told we weren’t to worry everything was fine.”
Next morning about 8am, Joyce phoned to be told she’d had a “great night”, had slept all night and that she was still sleeping.
Joyce said: “There was something funny because mum wasn’t a great sleeper. A consultant went to see her at 9.30am. She had been in a coma all night.”
When they saw a consultant, he said cancer had taken over Joyce’s body and all they could offer was palliative care. The sisters said it was the first admission their mum had cancer.
Joyce died later that day with her daughters at her side. Her death certificate said she had metastasis of an unknown primary – secondary cancer – but no post mortem was carried out.
The sisters got a letter of apology from the board’s executive nurse director Fiona MacQueen, now Scotland’s chief nursing officer.
But they are aggrieved that, while she apologised, she never addressed any of their questions about their mum’s condition, care and the subsequent investigation.
An adverse event review was carried out and concluded there should have been a higher level of supervision of the drip, stating the review group found this to be “a significant failing” and the “most significant contributing factor to the poor outcome of this patient”.
It was also critical of allowing the patient’s anxiety and agitation to “impair the clinical judgment of all involved in this case”.
And there were criticisms of poor communication, no access
There was something funny because mum wasn’t a great sleeper... She had been in a coma DAUGHTER JOYCE
to a consultant for the family and poor documentation.
Last night Rab Wilson, a founding member of Action for a Safe and Accountable People’s NHS (ASAP-NHS), said: “There seems to be a great deal of mystery and unanswered questions regarding the Adverse Event Report completed by NHS Ayrshire and Arran and for the levels of care received by their mother when she was in Crosshouse Hospital.
“NHS A&A have a poor history when it comes to learning and sharing lessons from these reports, and other such avoidable and preventable incidents.
“The anonymous letter raises serious concerns about standards of care at NHS A&A if it is true.
“We would urge whoever wrote this letter to speak with us at ASAP-NHS, in confidence, to see if there is any substance and evidence to back up what they say.
“The family deserve answers and they do not seem to be getting them from NHS A&A.”
The health board said they could not comment on Joyce Neil’s treatment because the legal action had not been settled. But A&A chief executive John Burns, said they took all concerns over care and treatment seriously.
He said: “We encourage an organisational culture that is open and supports members of staff to raise issues that concern them. We have a well-publicised whistleblowing policy which sets out how staff can raise concerns.
“We received a similar letter from ‘Deeply concerned NHS Staff ’ and undertook a review in accordance with the board’s whistleblowing policy.
“We regret and are saddened a family already coping with their loss have been communicated with in this manner.”