Hospital rapped after suicide

NHS Forth Valley has been told to apologise to the family of a man who was discharged from hospital before his death from suicide.

The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman upheld a complaint by the man’s daughter, named only as Ms C.

The man, described as Mr A, was admitted to Forth Valley Royal Hospital after expressing suicidal thoughts but was discharged the following day, a decision which Ms C said was unreasonable.

The SPSO found that there was no evidence he had been adequately assessed and upheld her complaint.

Mr A returned on his day of discharge and asked to be readmitted but that was refused.

His daughter’s complaint that this decision was also unreasonable was upheld by the ombudsman, who said nursing staff had not consulted a doctor or carried out an assessment at that point.

Ms C had also complained that Mr A’s medical records were inadequate and the watchdog found there were failings in relation to describing the assessment of risk, the clinical rationale for the management of Mr A, discharge planning, changes in his mental state and information available from his family.

The final part of Ms C’s complaint was that the board had delayed in completing a significant adverse event review.

The SPSO said:“The board had accepted that there were delays in this and had apologised for this. We upheld this complaint.

“We were satisfied, however, that the board had taken reasonable and appropriate action to try to prevent all of these failings recurring.

“They had also apologised to the family for most of the failings, although we recommended that they issue a further apology for the delay in completing the significant adverse event review.

“We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.”

An NHS Forth Valley spokesperson said:“We fully accept the ombudsman’s findings and have taken a number of actions to help prevent similar failings from occurring in the future.

“We have also written to the family to offer a further apology for the delay in completing the review into the care and treatment provided.”