Chief nurse says sorry after 2am discharge 'fell far short' of standard

4:47pm Thursday 24th January 2013 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

Lynne Swiatczak Lynne Swiatczak

A CHIEF nurse has apologised for the way a dementia sufferer was sent home in a taxi from Stoke Mandeville Hospital at 2am.

Click here for the full story about the 85-year-old patient - who was left freezing in a hospital gown after struggling to get into her home.

Lynne Swiatczak, Chief Nurse and Director of Patient Care Standards at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said this afternoon: “I am sorry for the way that Mrs Smith’s mother’s discharge was managed – it was not handled in the correct way, and falls far short of the standard that I would expect.

“I have been in contact with Mrs Smith and am investigating exactly what happened. We take all complaints seriously and will not hesitate to take action if we need to.”

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Comments(12)

Ivor'sbestfriend says...
5:34pm Thu 24 Jan 13

Only 12 days too late.

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stir up says...
5:59pm Thu 24 Jan 13

The problem is that the Royal College of Nursing has let nurses down by doing away with the old style of training that led to qualification of students after 3 years at one hospital as SRNs. Now they have to move around various hospitals and do not develope a pride in their training school, on top of which the labour governmnet kept putting pressure on hospitals to reach targets. This unfortunate lady was caught up in this culture. i had exceptional care and attention when in Stoke M as did my wife. It is not the nurses fault it is the system. The RCN is the main culprit and those at its head seam to have removed themselves from the real need for more hands on at the coal face type traing.

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RenegadeJ007 says...
6:07pm Thu 24 Jan 13

My point exactly...not even a slight hint of sorry, but just empty words about falling short of standards or procedures...This is not about standards, you dim witted idiots ! It was about practising common sense at your workplace !!! and realising whether how will an elderly dementia sufferer is to make their way home at 2a.m without a relative or a viable transport method. I mean if a nurse could not make this sort of decision properly then I really have no confidence in their way of practising medicine or looking after people. No matter how competent they were with their set standards or procedures before hand.

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Voyeur says...
6:16pm Thu 24 Jan 13

The NHS routinely issues letters of apology in the hope that litigation will not ensue. If it is really important the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust will sign the letter.

How on earth can anyone be discharged at 2.00 am?

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bonkers2010 says...
6:34pm Thu 24 Jan 13

who in their right mind would send an 85 year old women on her own in a taxi with no clothes no keys and no money at 2am in the morning .. the nurse should be struck off .. This isnt just a little mishap .. what are the staff doing . complete idiots . This is a complete faliure of basic common sense . OMG . Three questions .. do you have your keys , do you have money to pay the taxi and are you ok getting in a taxi on your own .. taxis are ok but you never know . this could of been a lot worse for the women .. You should be ashamed of yourself nurse who ever you are

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Mike Henson says...
7:33pm Thu 24 Jan 13

Words fail me, nobody should be discharged in the middle of the night unless someone is there to take responsibility. The hospital has breached it's Duty Of Care which is a legal responsibility. This is not acceptable.

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crob says...
9:46pm Thu 24 Jan 13

Doesn't suprise me. I had twins by C-section there. At 10am on the day of being discharged the process began.

I was finally discharged at 9pm and let out with 4 day old twins.

Unacceptable

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Mr Totterdge Hill says...
10:32pm Thu 24 Jan 13

stir up wrote:
The problem is that the Royal College of Nursing has let nurses down by doing away with the old style of training that led to qualification of students after 3 years at one hospital as SRNs. Now they have to move around various hospitals and do not develope a pride in their training school, on top of which the labour governmnet kept putting pressure on hospitals to reach targets. This unfortunate lady was caught up in this culture. i had exceptional care and attention when in Stoke M as did my wife. It is not the nurses fault it is the system. The RCN is the main culprit and those at its head seam to have removed themselves from the real need for more hands on at the coal face type traing.
Too right!
I left nursing in 1984 at the start of the rot! They got rid of Matron with her 3 deputies and one secretary only to replace her with 7 heads of departments 3 night staff and 7 secretaries...too many chiefs and not enough Indians!
Now trained nurses are let loose and have new ways that allow too many mistakes.
Welcome the new system!

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Honey33 says...
2:29am Fri 25 Jan 13

This senior nurse failed to withhold hospital's ethics and standards and its just too easy now to apologise and come clean. The honourable thing is to resign for the mess she created.

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demoness the second says...
7:51am Fri 25 Jan 13

Honey33 wrote:
This senior nurse failed to withhold hospital's ethics and standards and its just too easy now to apologise and come clean. The honourable thing is to resign for the mess she created.
????

Did she let the patient home at 0200? Was it her?
Sadly no matter how much you try and do things the right way,you have individuals who refuse to do it. This is true in all walks of life.
Acknowledging and apologising and the insuring that it does not happen again is the right thing to do. The individual who let the poor lady go home is the one who should be resigning.. or at the very least facing the family and justifying his/her actions. :(

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Anna Smith says...
8:59am Fri 25 Jan 13

The nurse who allowed this lady to be discharged at that hour was not abiding by the NMC Code of conduct, which states 'Make the care of people your first concern, treating them as individuals and respecting their dignity'. I am a nurse, but do not (and would not) work at Stoke Mandeville. Had I been in that situation and was expected to discharge a patient in such circumstances, I would contact my line manager and state that I was firmly opposed to doing so. (It could of course be possible that this did indeed happen). I would have no hesitation whatsoever in handing in my resignation if I was not treated with dignity myself as a professional.

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buftonp13 says...
1:17am Sat 26 Jan 13

Just another appualing story comming out of our hospitals. Things need to be changed, it just isnt working. We need to go back to the days when a matron was in charge im sure things like this never used to happen.
They need to get to the bottom of this case and sack those responsible, they are not capable of doing the job we pay them to do, and are bringing down the great work 99% of NHS staff do in this country.

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