NHS Highland apology after "next of kin" complaint
NHS Highland’s Chief Executive has apologised for not including next of kin in decisions about the care and treatment of a patient during 2011.
The patient was the husband of the next of kin and was admitted to hospital in February 2011.
Concerns were raised with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s Office and they have carried out a detailed investigation. NHS Highland has now received the Ombudsman’s Report which makes two recommendations.
NHS Highland Chief Executive, Elaine Mead, said: “I want to publicly apologise on behalf of NHS Highland for our failures in not including the next of kin in decisions about the care and treatment of her husband.
“I have written to her to say how sorry we are about what happened and to explain what we have done to implement improvements.
“The findings of the report have been shared with clinical staff and managers across the organisation and we are also working in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland to take forward a range of activities to improve the quality of care for people with dementia and their carers, particularly in hospital settings.
“Our failings in relation to the rights of ‘Named Persons’ and those with Power of Attorney status were not acceptable. We have looked at and reviewed how we treat people with dementia and their families and carers and we have improvement plans in place to ensure we fully meet the Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland and principles underpinning the Mental Health Act and Adults with Incapacity Act.
“We take the findings in the Ombudsman’s report very seriously. We are determined to learn from feed-back and drive up the quality and consistency of our care”
