Incompetent or genuine mistake?

[JDog]

The National Health Service is such a behemoth that I am surprised that anyone thinks it can be run effectively. Thankfully I have had very little to do with it until recently when my very aged mother spent the last few weeks of her life being looked after by an assortment of NHS staff. Sadly she died last Friday.

 

Anyone who has had to deal with the aftermath of a death in the family will know that it can be upsetting and hard work. On Monday I arranged to collect the death certificate from what is called the 'bereavement office' after it had been signed off by the doctor looking after my mother. On collection I was told that the certificate was sealed and it could only be opened by the Registrar of Death.

 

My appointment with the Registrar was cut short as soon as she opened the envelope saying that she had to call the Coroner. Following her call she informed me that the death could not be registered as the cause of death shown was clearly incorrect even though the correct name was on the death certificate.

 

It appears that the doctor had simply written down the cause of death of another patient. Had the cause of death shown been correct my poor ninety two year old mother would have had to be the subject of an autopsy which no one in their right minds would want. I managed to get another and correct certificate issued after standing on the ward making a fuss.

 

This is not a NHS knocking post as I believe that most in the service do sterling work.

[saddler]

Dealt with Scottish ambulance service....called to take swmbos extremely ill father from nursing home to hospital; after the emergency doctor attended & said he needed to be moved.

 

**** poor outfit. Lying incompetent two faced bunch of *******.

Denied they'd ever been called...took about 5 hours to eventually attend....and almost a phone call per hour.

 

He died within a few days. Not saying the Ambulance pricks were at fault but they did contribute a ton of unnecessary stress to a trying time for all concerned.

[Scully]

My sincere condolences; it comes to us all, but the finality of it all is always hard.

[aga man]

Shocking to read this JDog, i hope you receive a sincere and heartfelt apology in the very least.

 

Sorry to hear of your Mothers passing.

[Mice!]

I would hope it was just an over worked individual making a mistake, when my old fella passed the nurses were great they've obviously seen it before but you don't think of that at the time.

 

I agree with you completely about the running of the NHS can't imagine the number of people that must be employed, yes it could be better run but I wouldn't want the job

[la bala]

My wife has been in and out of hospital since January, i am not at all happy how lots of things have gone. I have seen mistakes waitng to happen with fresh people getting involved and not reading the notes. One person will prescribe a drug, two days later another person will stop it saying you dont need it. But a big problem is, the hospitals are from what i have seen, are totally understaffed, the poor nurses are running up there own backside and this in turn can create mistakes. I have seen poor old people press thier bed button and then maybe wait 15 minutes before they get attended to. Not having a pop at the hands on workers, but when you are working under stress like they are mistakes will be made some could be very serious.

[ditchman]

Sorry to hear about you mum JD............

[matone]

Condolences on your loss,a very sad time without doubt.We can all make mistakes but in that scenario more care should obviously have been taken .

[Konnie]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

 

think the NHS is very badly managed in the top tiers, and this filters down gradually to others.. not under funded at all and us as customers suffer.

[Me matt]

My sincere condolences; it comes to us all, but the finality of it all is always hard.

+1

very well put.

[mel b3]

im sincerely sorry to hear of your mothers passing john.

 

i hope that the mistake was due to an overworked and under pressure doctor , and not just sloppiness .

[Wilksy II]

Really sorry to read this And you're sad loss Jdog, I fear I'm going to experience it all to soon as my dad (82) has just gone in to hostpital.

[southman1]

Sorry about your sad loss and what you went through ,, bu all i can say when my beloved bev was taken from me last July I can not praise the emergency services a nough in the end I had a first responder then 2 paramedics then a special heart team at my house they worked on her for an hour then the cardiac arrest team at the hospital Sadley she was taken from me , I have said that we moan a doubt the n h s but when you need them they are there for you

[7daysinaweek]

Hi jd

firstly sorry to hear of your loss of your loved one.

Contact the patient advice and liason service (P.AL.S) for the nhs. All nhs healthcare providers have a complaints policy, as part of this policy dependent on nature of complaint or concern can sometimes be resolved by what is known as local resolution at ward level by speaking to the ward manager. However a concern may relate to policy/standard operating procedure which has not been followed correctly and needs to be formalised. Your unfortunate experience will be catagoried as a near miss within the nhs risk management model. I can see this being a genuine documentation error on behalf of the practitioner for whichever reason, that said it is not any less distressing for yourself and family to have experienced this unfortunate situation at which can be a very emotional time.

 

By highlighting this to the trust they will carry out a (RCA) root cause analysis which asks when, how, why it happened? and make recommedations (L.S) Lessons learned and changes to process to decrease or mitigate the risk of this occuring again for others.

 

Here is the link for pals, search your area.

 

http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Patient%20advice%20and%20liaison%20services%20(PALS)/LocationSearch/363

 

 

 

atb

7diaw

[Vince Green]

Sorry to hear of your loss, this sort of tragic mistake is all too common. The doctor who filled out your mother's papers probably never even met your mother.

 

My OH works in the NHS but is appalled by the levels of apathy and incompetence among medical staff, usually foreign locums who haven't got a clue but HEY, they are a doctor, everybody closes ranks.

 

One of her pet gripes is having to show them how to use the vending machines in the rest room. As she says if you don't know how to use a tea machine where the hell have you been working up till now?

 

She works in mental health but she has known of doctors who have quietly disappeared after attributing patients mental heath issues to 'demonic possession' 'evil spirits' or 'spells' it all gets just airbrushed out. Say nothing, shred the file, it never happened.

 

The thing that constantly grosses her out, she has quite a bee in her bonnet about this, is the number of (female) doctors and nurses who don't wash their hands after going to the toilet. Basic stuff, not rocket science.

[Gordon R]

JDog - sincerely sorry about your loss. The error just made a bad situation worse.

 

Vince - we seem to share a view of the NHS. Not all is down to underfunding. My local trust were kind enough to give me MRSA, but scrubbed a private ward from top to bottom, before moving me into it. I live with the effects to this day.

[grrclark]

Condolonces on your loss JD.

 

Although losing your mum is a massive emotional time in yours and your families life, for those working at the hospital it is just another patient who has died whilst under hospital care. Your focus is understandably 100% on what has happened whilst their focus moves onto the other patients that they have and where they can make a positive impact on their care.

 

Of course they have both a duty of care and responsibility to ensure that they deal with the necessary formalities for you at a very difficult and emotional time, but it would seem that they have not given the necessary focus and attention in support of the process you need to go through after the passing of your mum.

 

Your story is not an isolated one in my experience in respect to the handling of matters after a patient has died.

[OJW]

Sorry to hear about your mothers passing. I hope you and the family are ok mate. Very insensitive cock up by the NHS.

[shoot and be safe]

Sorry to hear of your loss JD

[SNS]

Oh, sorry to hear that JDog, condolences from Mrs SNS and myself

[pigeon controller]

Sorry to hear of your loss JDog, it's never a good time and stressful at the best of times. I hope you can think of the good times and not the mix up at the end. Condolences from myself and Mrs PC.