‘My Wife’s Care In India Was Superb, But Here Conditions Are Appalling’

When Mark Ziervogel’s wife was seriously injured while they were on holiday in India, he was delighted with the hospital treatment she received there. But the NHS care she has received since returning to Scotland has given him cause for concern.

And he should know. Mr Ziervogel is a former radiologist who once ran the X-ray department at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children. The retired consultant says he has been “hung out to dry” by the NHS.

He has nothing but praise for the cleanliness, efficiency and equipment available at the hospitals in India which looked after his wife Toni. However, since she was transferred to Glasgow’s Western Infirmary, where Mr Ziervogel trained himself, the couple have encountered a catalogue of problems.

Even the doctor who accompanied Mrs Ziervogel from Delhi was said to be appalled at the dirt and delays at the Western.

The 66-year-old patient has now been waiting five weeks for space at the head injury rehabilitation unit at the Southern General, according to her husband. During this delay, he said, she fell out of bed and five days later was found to have a fractured jaw.

“Staff have provided Toni with the best care they can given the resources they have,” said Mr Ziervogel, 70. But he added: “There seems to be insufficient beds or facilities for dealing with head injury patients.”

The couple, who live near Milngavie, are keen cyclists and were on holiday riding in Rajasthan in February when the accident occurred. “We were going down a hill doing about 25mph. Toni skidded and came off onto the road and banged her head.”

With the help of Army doctor Claire Gaunt, who was among the group, they turned the back seat of their bus into a stretcher and began the five-hour journey to A&E in Ajmer. Mr Ziervogel said: “The reception at the hospital was superb. The cleanliness made me blush when we saw the Western.”

His wife, a former teacher, was seen by a neurosurgeon and given CT scans. As well as suffering severe bruising to her brain, she had fractured her pelvis and spent five days in intensive care before being transferred to Delhi.

More intensive treatment followed, but the contusions to her brain had left Mrs Ziervogel agitated and confused. She struggled to communicate coherently and co-ordinate her movements.

But by March 6 she was ready for the journey back to Scotland. While she was transferred on a stretcher via Paris and Manchester, escorted by a doctor and nurse, Mr Ziervogel travelled home alone.

He drew-up at the Western minutes before his wife. E-mails detail efforts the couple’s daughter made to prepare for Toni’s arrival. Apparently the family were told, because Mrs Ziervogel was stable, she should go to the Western rather than the specialist head unit in the south of Glasgow.

Mr Ziervogel said: “Her discharge summary was read to the medic at the Western so they knew she was coming.” However, when the crew pulled-up, Mr Ziervogel said they were asked to wait in the ambulance because another emergency had just come in.

“It strikes me as strange that an acute receiving hospital with an A&E can only handle one case at a time,” he said. “The Indian doctor was appalled. He was also appalled at the filthy and dirty aspect of the Western.”

Mr Ziervogel believes it was more than four hours before his wife was given a bed on a surgical ward. “Once Toni was admitted both the surgical staff and the nurses said to me, quite categorically, we are not geared to handling agitated head injury patients. What we can give her is good nursing care. We cannot rehabilitate her’.”

So his wife began the wait for a bed at the Southern’s Physical Disability Rehabilitation Unit (PDRU), her husband visiting daily. Then one night, while he was eating a late dinner, Mr Ziervogel received a call to say she had fallen out of bed. Although she appeared okay, five days later – after she had complained of pain – an X-ray revealed she had broken her jaw.

Mr Ziervogel said the fall sparked a change in his wife’s care. He happily reports that her condition has improved, that she has begun to ask for her make up and that he has even taken her out for lunch. He praises the staff on the ground for their “kindness and patience” blaming management and systems for what he sees as failures in care.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said in a statement: ” A critical incident review into Mrs Ziervogel’s fall is ongoing and Mr Ziervogel is aware that he will be given an opportunity to contribute to that review.” They also said that patients are reviewed when referred to the PDRU and Mrs Ziervogel has been accepted for transfer later this week.