Decision report 201200253

Summary

Mr C said that an NHS 24 nurse practitioner failed to respond appropriately to a call made to NHS 24 when his mother fell ill. The nurse practitioner explained during the call that she would arrange for an out-of-hours GP to attend within two hours. Following the GP's visit, Mr C's mother was admitted to hospital where she later died. Mr C complained that the nurse practitioner failed to take into account his mother's recent admission to hospital, following the fracture of her hip, and failed to give the case sufficient priority.

Our nursing adviser considered the evidence, including a recording of the call, and reached the conclusion that the nurse practitioner's actions were reasonable. She noted that the nurse practitioner had in fact upgraded the response time from 'two hours' to an 'urgent' response after the telephone call but that, unfortunately, the family were not informed of this. As the nurse practitioner's actions were, however, reasonable in terms of the priority given to the call, we did not uphold the complaint.