Ombudsman "increasingly concerned" about patients being discharged unsafely

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has said she is increasingly concerned about patients being discharged unsafely from hospital.

The Ombudsman, Julie Mellor, said unplanned admissions and readmissions were “a massive cost to the NHS”.

Her comments came as the PSHO published a report containing 161 summaries of investigations it carried out between April and June this year.

These investigations “highlighted the devastating impact failures in public services can have on the lives of individuals and their families”, said Mellor, whose organisation is tasked with investigating complaints about the NHS in England and UK government departments.

Some 126 of the 161 cases related to healthcare. The PSHO received several complaints relating to incorrect discharges from hospitals.

One complaint highlighted by the Ombudsman concerned Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, where a man died following a liver biopsy.

“The investigation found he had an inadequate care plan, was incorrectly discharged from A&E and biopsy consent was not properly obtained,” the PSHO said. “He was not properly monitored, cared for and given inappropriate medication after the biopsy, and the Trust lost clinical records.”

A case involving Bedford Hospital NHS Trust meanwhile saw a man attend A&E with nausea, vomiting and not opening his bowels for three days. “The following day he was admitted to hospital where surgery found he had a complete loss of blood supply to his small bowel,” the report said. “We found the Trust inappropriately discharged the man from A&E.”

The PSHO also cited a number of complaints over cancer diagnosis.

“In one case, a woman who had surgery at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was told she had cancer in her stomach and bowel and would need cancer treatment and further tests, but staff did not arrange these,” the report said.

“She then saw a surgical consultant, who said there was no cancer whatsoever. Five weeks later the surgical consultant told her she did in fact have cancer.”

Commenting on the report, Mellor said: “We are publishing these summaries so public services, MPs and members of the public can see the different types of complaints we look into, our findings and recommendations.

“I hope this will give people with concerns about the service they have received the confidence to come to us to complain. We also want to provide valuable lessons for public services, and show how complaining makes a positive difference to them.”

This is the second tranche of cases summaries the PSHO has published.