Censure after Staff Restrain Dementia Patient

A health board was censured yesterday over the care of a dementia sufferer who was made to sit at a table to prevent him wandering round his hospital ward. The patient was confused and disoriented after being transferred to three wards in two days, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman ruled.

The watchdog upheld a complaint against Argyll and Clyde NHS Board, which has since merged with NHS Greater Glasgow, that staff had used unnecessary physical restraint and had not properly dealt with the patient’s dementia-related problems after he was admitted in January last year. It called for a review of training and better communication with patients’ families.

A separate report by the ombudsman, one of 17 laid before the Scottish Parliament yesterday, also criticised Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS for giving an inadequate explanation to the family of a man who died after an operation for lung cancer.

His widow had to wait nearly three years before learning the outcome of the medical directors’ inquiry into the case, which the ombudsman labelled a “clearly unacceptable” delay.

It also upheld a complaint that a post-mortem examination should have been carried out.

The health board yesterday refused to disclose which hospitals had been criticised. A spokeswoman said it accepted both sets of recommendations and would be looking into them over the next few weeks.

The family of the dementia patient, who was identified only as Mr D, complained that he had not been properly monitored by hospital staff and that as a result he had fallen and injured his head while wandering around the ward in a state of confusion.

He died after being discharged from hospital.

However, the charge was rejected by the ombudsman, who found that the patient had received an appropriate level of medical care. The report also quashed suggestions that his treatment in the hospital had contributed to his death.

The report highlighted the fact that no care plan had been drawn up which might have identified suitable methods of restraint.

Charities welcomed the report yesterday and called for more training. Kate Fearnley, policy director of Alzheimer’s Scotland, said: “This highlights the importance of looking carefully at the needs of people with dementia when they go into hospital with a physical illness.”

Professor June Andrews, director of the Dementia Service Development Centre at Strathcylde University, said that the method of restraint used by the hospital was “unacceptable” and called for greater training for hospital staff.

She said: “We need to increase the level of knowledge of how to deal with these patients.”