Decision Report 201803829

Summary

Mr C complained about the nursing care provided to his late mother (Mrs A) while she was a patient at Borders General Hospital. Mr C said Mrs A had told him that a nurse had pulled out her nephrostomy tube (a thin plastic tube passed from the back, through the skin and then into the kidney) and that it had not been reinserted properly. As a result of the failure to properly reinsert the tube, Mr C felt Mrs A's condition deteriorated until her death.

We took independent advice from an adviser and found that, had the tube been displaced, it would have to be reinserted in a sterile environment such as a theatre which would not normally be a procedure carried out by nursing staff. In addition, there was no entry in the nursing records which indicated that there was a problem with the tube and when Mrs A was subsequently transferred to another hospital the tube was seen to be working appropriately. We did not uphold the complaint.