NHS Forth Valley
The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman has partially upheld a complaint made against NHS Forth Valley over treatment of a mental health patient.
The person identified only as Mr C complained about the care and treatment provided to his mother (Miss A) during two admissions to the mental health unit at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
In relation to her first admission, Mr C had concerns about the monitoring and treatment of blood pressure and the treatment provided to Miss A by a psychiatrist.
As a result of her second admission he then raised concerns about medical care, nursing care and issues around communication.
Mr C also complained about the gap in community psychiatric care in the period between the two admissions.
While the Ombudsman dismissed a number of the complaints, the report made recommendations on failures in blood pressure monitoring and in the wording of correspondence related to the case.
It added: “We took independent advice from a nurse and a consultant psychiatrist.
“We found that there were failings by nursing staff in the monitoring of Miss A’s blood pressure and upheld this aspect of Mr C’s complaint. However, we noted that the board had acknowledged this failing and had introduced a new system for recording observations.
“Overall, we found that the medical treatment provided to Miss A during her admission was reasonable and did not uphold these complaints.
“However, we noted that one letter sent to Mr C contained unhelpful language and we made a recommendation in light of this.
“In relation to the gap in community psychiatric care in the period between the two admissions, we found that the board had not followed the clinical management plan in place once Miss A’s psychiatrist left the community mental health team.
“Therefore, we upheld this aspect of Mr C’s complaint.
“We did note, however, that the board had apologised for this failing and had put a new appointment system in place to address this issue.”
In relation to Miss A’s second admission, neither adviser identified any failings in medical care, nursing care or communication.
Therefore the Ombudsman did not uphold these aspects of Mr C’s complaint.
Among the recommendations made were that NHS Forth Valley apologise to Miss A and Mr C for the failure to appropriately monitor Miss A’s blood pressure and the content and tone of the letter sent to Mr C.
The Ombudsman told the board that blood pressure monitoring should be carried out in line with the instructions by the medical team and asked for evidence that the recommendations had been implemented.
An NHS Forth Valley spokesperson said: “While the Ombudsman did not uphold several aspects of this complaint, we recognise that it highlighted a number of issues and action has already been taken to address these.
“We fully accept the recommendations outlined in the report and will ensure that these are acted on.”