The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
‘Dad was let down by NHS’
Amuch-loved Aberdeen grandfather was not provided reasonable end-of-life nursing care at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, a watchdog has ruled.
Lawson Thain, 86, was admitted to hospital after breaking his hip in a fall at his care home on February 23 2021.
The father-of-four and grandad-of-eight, a former professional boxer who had been battling dementia for 16 years, died six weeks later.
His daughter, Donna Ewen, filed a complaint with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman arguing her dad “had not been treated with dignity” and that he “had been left without food or water.”
This week the ombudsman upheld that there is no evidence Mr Thain “was cared for in a dignified and respectful manner” while finding “gaps in record-keeping in relation to food and fluid intake”.
The SPSO identified five failings by NHS Grampian, mistakes the board initially refused to accept.
Donna said: “My father was let down even in death, when the authorities refused to accept that they had failed to provide reasonable nursing care and treat my father in a dignified and respectful manner.”
She decided to pursue a complaint, which she described as “not an easy thing to do”.
Now, the ombudsman has upheld her complaint, confirming the board failed to provide reasonable end-of-life nursing care to her father.
After taking independent nursing advice, they discovered gaps in record-keeping in relation to food and fluid intake.
They also found the board had failed to evidence that Mr Thain was cared for in a dignified and respectful manner.
Comfort rounding was also not provided as frequently as it should have been.
The hospital further failed to demonstrate sufficiently frequent skin checks and repositioning, as the patient suffered from pressure ulcers.
Finally, the board failed to maintain wound charts and there was also no evidence of oral care having been provided.
Regarding the ombudsman decision, Donna said: “In a way, I was praying the SPSO would reject my complaints and reassure me that my father had received the best possible care.
“But now, it is harder to know that he was not always being properly cared for.”
NHS Grampian has apologised to Mr Thain’s family. An NHS Grampian spokesperson said: “We accept the ombudsman’s findings in this case and have undertaken to complete all the recommendations laid out. We wrote to the family last month to formally apologise, and we would take this opportunity to apologise again, publicly. The care we provided fell short of our own standards.”