AN inspection into elderly care at a major hospital has revealed staff on one ward did not know which patients were classed as "do not resuscitate".
The report by Healthcare Improvement Scotland showed that a mix-up over patients being moved into different rooms meant staff at Monklands Hospital in North Lanarkshire did not know who was to be resuscitated in an emergency and who was not. The confusion came about because staff marked up patients' rooms Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) instead of relying on their individual records.
Inspectors also noted that documentation in some DNACPR cases was not completed correctly.
Patient groups and politicians reacted angrily to the potentially life-threatening failures, branding them horrifying and extremely concerning.
Dr Jean Turner, executive director of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "It's horrifying that they didn't know exactly who was to be resuscitated and who wasn't.
"When it's been decided that there's nothing more can be done for an elderly patient and the family has been notified, it's a very sensitive issue which staff should be paying close attention to.
"Labelling the room that the patient is in as 'do not resuscitate' is not enough. You must have in place the policies and the systems to make sure that errors don't occur.
"It's quite frightening to think that they might not. I certainly wouldn't like to be a patient on that ward if they lacked this knowledge.
"It shows you just how poor the communication was between staff. I hate to think that this could have cost lives."
Inspectors noted seven areas of strength for the hospital, 15 areas in need of improvement and four areas in need of continuing improvement.
Other areas in need of improvement included taking preventative measures to stop the development of pressure sores, rather than simply reacting when they occur, improving staff training and ensuring elderly patients are screened for cognitive impairment.
Areas where the hospital performed well included the use of dementia champions to improve the care of dementia sufferers.
Siobhan McMahon, Labour MSP for Central Scotland, said: "Although the report highlights some areas of strength, it also identifies significant areas for improvement."
Rosemary Lyness, NHS Lanarkshire's director of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions, said: "The inspectors highlighted areas for improvement, which we are addressing as a priority."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article