Mum Injured while at the Hospital.

lindos90

Im not really sure where to put this, as it doesnt really fit into 'disability and dosh' or 'consumer rights' or indeed where I could go elsewhere on the net for advice, but Ive always got really good advice from MSE so I thought I would start here.

My mum went for a simple outpatient test on her heart a while ago. She has some mobility problems and chronic back pain (Her spine/ribs can fracture just while getting out of a chair!..i'll not go into the details or it would be a long post!) We told the nurses the risks and that she would have difficulty getting off the examination couch and would need time to do it herself very carefully.

Apparently this was unheeded and due to very poor and unexpected intervention from a nurse, my mum suffered an injury to her back, she had to be admitted to hospital, she never went home to her first floor flat and had to be rehoused to a bungalow following several weeks rehabilitation. She is still in great pain.

After she was discharged we decided to write a complaint, this was initially acknowledged, but then apparently 'lost in the system' I then had to resubmit a copy of the complaints form. I have now received a reply saying that the staff can not remember the incident, and no incident report was completed, and therefore there is no case to answer. It feels that they dont want to acknowledge any responsibility and that they are giving no credibility at all to my mums account of the incident.

We have not asked for compensation. Our priority is an acknowledgement of the truth, for the staff member to be held account, disciplined and retrained in moving and handling procedures, and an apology from the hospital for how these actions have affected my mums life. I hoped this would allow my mum to put it behind her.

Can anyone suggest a way forward? Has anyone had any experience with hospital complaints? This incident has affected my mums independence and quality of life, their response has done nothing to address this at all.

Does anyone know the procedure for gaining access to hosptial medical notes? (She was admitted via A&E because of this incident, so Im assuming there will be something in the notes to indicate the incident happened, which may help them acknowledge that it did happen)

Please help!

birkee

My experience....they will lie through their teeth to cover their backs.
They nearly killed me (literally) and the hospital release form said the reason for my admission (I was a day patient) was blood pressure problems. (Hypertension) No mention of a crash team spending two hours keeping me alive and 6 bags of fluid into my blood stream to create some blood pressure. All I went in for was an injection into my spine for pain.

withabix

Cover-ups and lies are rife in the NHS.

Get a Solicitor to write a letter, or write to your MP. The liars at the hospital will 'suddently' sh*t themselves.

Doglover

Hi, sorry to hear about your mum. I'd ask the hospital for them now while you're dealing with them but don't be surprised if the notes are not particularly helpful.

If you want compensation get an approved clinical neg solicitor via the law society or through APIL (google them). I wouldn't ask for your records if you do this though, leave it to your lawyer.

If you don't want compo then getting the notes is unlikely to change anything. They will have checked the notes in response to your complaint I'd imagine. Acknowledgement is highly unlikely to go any further. Perhaps have a chat with your mum's GP - they're often given copies of some hospital notes although the clinical hand written notes won't be there.

However if you google Access to medical records it'll show you which Act to quote and the process for requesting them.

I wish you and your mum the best

lindos90

birkee wrote: »

My experience....they will lie through their teeth to cover their backs.
They nearly killed me (literally) and the hospital release form said the reason for my admission (I was a day patient) was blood pressure problems. (Hypertension) No mention of a crash team spending two hours keeping me alive and 6 bags of fluid into my blood stream to create some blood pressure. All I went in for was an injection into my spine for pain.

Good grief, what a terrible experience for you Birkee. So you made a complaint and didnt get anywhere? Its just so fustrating.

Caroline_a

I put in a complaint when my dad was in hospital - I had spoken in confidence to a sister and she told him everything I'd said, upsetting him hugely. (Basically I wanted to know her professional opinion whether he had got to the stage where he needed fulltime professional care, or whether I should still struggle at home). The way he was told what I had said came across to him that I wanted to 'put him away'. It took four days to calm him down once he was home, and after he and I talked we both agreed that I should complain.

I wrote to the Trust, and 5 weeks later received an answer - by this time my dad had died. They said they could not proceed with the complaint unless they had my dad's signature to authorise their investigation... I said he's dead. Ok they said, case closed.

It stinks. No wonder so many people are paying to go privately.

lindos90

Thanks for the replies. I will look into accessing her records to see if there is anything that may help. I would like them to admit what happened and pin them down with some proof. But from your responses so far it sounds like its not really worth perusing, if they are just going to cover things up and lie, they could just 'remove' any incriminating pages from her notes before sending then to me.

We just wanted acknowledgement of the incident, an apology, and for the staff member to be disciplined, looks like this is very unlikely to happen though. Its a shame that the 'compensation culture' has made organisations so wary of simply saying 'sorry'. I guess they think if they apologise, then that means they are admitting that something went wrong.

lindos90

Caroline_a wrote: »

They said they could not proceed with the complaint unless they had my dad's signature to authorise their investigation... I said he's dead. Ok they said, case closed.

It stinks. No wonder so many people are paying to go privately.

Good grief what a terrible excuse! How sad, why couldnt they have just said sorry and that the nurse would be reminded about the importance of confidentiality?

So sorry to hear about your Dad.

Wilma33

Have you tired contacting PALS at the hospital concerned?

TooSad

Hi
We hired as solicitor to pursue our complaint against the hospital that treated my mum - completely different to your case as my mum passed away due to the negligent treatment she received post operatively.
Our dads house insurance has covered the cost of the solicitor and barrister we had for the inquest. Im highlighting this as I didn't know the house insurance would do this.

To access medical records I would suggest you look here http://www.nhsmedicalrecords.org.uk/medicalrecords.php. There is a sample letter. Any correspondence send "signed for" so you have a paper trail.
When we got mums medical notes, prior to appointing solicitor, we found our GP to be very helpful in digesting them and letting us know what the jargon and shorthand meant.
The solicitors have a team of nurses who then put them into a chronological order which highlighted where things had gone wrong.

I would also suggest you contact the hospitals PAL's.

Hope this helps
TooSad x

*onlyme*

I sadly think you are not going to get what you want....in November 2009 my FIL was rushed to hospital and was diagnosed with kidney stones (on a Friday)...they did a procedure on the Saturday morning, when he came out of that he was paralysed from the waste down, he kept telling my MIL that they had dropped him but the doctors etc reassured us all it was the medication doing that to him... on Sunday morning they were going to do another procedure but my MIL wanted to wait until all the sons had arrived so they could hear it from the docs as well...however, they went ahead without her signing any paperwork and then the doc came out and basically said they had 20 mins with him as he was dying...

and yes he died very shortly after...

It is still going through the coroner etc now and is still being investigated as my MIL has taken it further, very longwinded and frustrating time and it has drained her. It was such a shock to us all, he was 60, a very fit and healthy man, apart from the kidney stones obviously...