Decision Report 201401344

Summary

Ms C, who suffers from mild cerebral palsy and epilepsy, complained that when she attended the Western Infirmary Glasgow following a fall, staff failed to take her concerns seriously and discharged her without taking an x-ray of her left knee. Ms C says she was told to carry out exercises, which she did, but the pain worsened and she returned to the hospital three days later to be told, following an x-ray, that her left knee had suffered a fracture.

In response to Ms C's complaint, the board apologised for the delay in the diagnosis of a left knee fracture and told Ms C that the member of staff involved had been asked to reflect on her practice and attitude. We contacted the board and were told that they had upheld Ms C's complaint that staff had not carried out an x-ray when Ms C first attended the hospital and that advice should had been sought from a senior member of the medical staff. The board also said that the member of staff involved did not follow recognised protocol and that all staff are required to have an up-to-date Knowledge and Skills Framework and a Personal Development Plan, both of which are used to ensure that staff are kept up to date in their clinical practice. We found that the board's response to Ms C was lacking in specific detail and did not make clear that her complaint had been upheld. The board's response also failed to include information about what action had been taken to prevent a repeat occurrence.

Recommendations

We recommended that the Board:

• apologise to Ms C for failing to make clear that her complaint was upheld and that appropriate action had been taken to help prevent a similar situation occurring in future.