Health board in apology to family after care failings

HEALTH bosses in Tayside have been forced to apologise over their handling of a woman’s care

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has released a report which says that a woman had complained about the treatment her mother had received on admission to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

The report stated that: “She had complained about the standard of communication and the delay i n diagnosing and treating her mother, and she said that her mother had suffered unnecessary pain due to the nonadministration of medication.” The patient has since died. The report went on to state the board had accepted there had been a number of failings regarding the patient’s care, relating to a lack of communication within and between departments.

The SPSO added: “While the board has already accepted failings in relation to the nursing care provided, the advice we received from the nursing adviser was that there had been other failings by nursing staff.”

The report also highlighted that the consent process for a procedure to fit a stent, a small tube used to treat narrow or weak arteries, had not followed the relevant guidance.

The SPSO found further issues relating to the patient’s care.

The report said: “We found that there were gaps in nursing care, particularly around the use of the malnutrition universal screening tool, and checking the patient’s food, fluid and nutritional care.”

In reaction to the complaints made, the NHS Tayside board accepted that it had failed to deal with the woman’s complaints in a timely and reasonable manner.

The SPSO made several recommendations to the board, i ncluding providing an update on the improvement plan put in place as a result of the complaint, and providing details of the delay in treatment.

It also advised that the board formally apologise for the additional failings identified by the investigation and provided an update on NHS Tayside’s complaints process.

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “We have accepted the recommendations and are acting on them.

“We have apologised family.” to the