Health Service Commissioner : second report for session 1977-78 : investigations completed December 1977-March 1978.

  • Great Britain. Health Service Commissioner.
Date:
1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Health Service Commissioner : second report for session 1977-78 : investigations completed December 1977-March 1978. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The complaints about hospital B 11. The complainant told me that in the accident of 17 March she had injured her foot and her head. When she was examined on arrival in the A and E Department at hospital B the doctor had grabbed her injured left arm and had said—‘this is not a recent injury’. She said she had then described her accident and told him that she was only complaining about her head and foot, which were both painful. But the doctor had still insisted on trying to find the whole range of movement in her arm, so causing her unnecessary pain, and had tried to insist that her arm should be x-rayed; but she had refused to allow this to be done. The doctor had then told her that she should go because there was nothing wrong with her. The complainant said that a nurse had then come to her, tossed her clothes across the trolley and told her to get dressed and to go. Her foot had then been bandaged and she had asked the nurse to get someone from the firm where she worked to collect her by taxi; and this had been done. She told my officers that she had been discharged even though she had made it clear that she was unable to walk. She also said she had been in a state of shock at the time and there were gaps in her recollection of what had taken place. 12. I have not been able to obtain evidence from the doctor concerned because he now lives abroad. But I have seen the record card which he completed on examining her; he recorded that the complainant had had a fall and sustained injuries to her head, neck, left ankle and left shoulder. He also noted the old injury to her left elbow. The notes record that he examined the complainant’s eyes, neck, spine, arms, chest and shoulder, and left ankle, which he found was tender. He ordered an x-ray of this, and the report states that there was no frac- ture identified in the ankle. 13. The staff nurse who had seen her told my officer that the complainant had become very anxious soon after her arrival. She said that she had gone to the complainant when she had heard a lot of noise from her cubicle and had found her shouting at the doctor and saying that she did not want to be treated by him. The doctor left after asking for an x-ray to be taken, but the complainant was reluctant to stay. The staff nurse had persuaded her to remain for the x-ray and when it had been done the doctor told the complainant that it showed that there was nothing wrong with her and that she could go home. The staff nurse said that the complainant had told him that he should also have x-rayed her arm, and he had said that that was not necessary. The complainant had then become hysterical and shouted about inadequate treatment, and pushed the doctor away. The staff nurse said that, after the complainant’s foot had been bandaged, she had given her her clothes, but she denied that she had thrown them at her. When she had asked the complainant where she worked so that she could get a colleague to go home with her, the complainant, because of her distressed condition, could not remember. The staff nurse had, with some difficulty, managed to trace the firm’s telephone number and to arrange for a colleague to come for the complainant with a taxi. She recalled that the com- plainant had at first said she could not walk but, after she was offered a wheel- chair, had said that she could. In the event she had left the hospital, but with some difficulty. Other nurses confirmed to my officer that the complainant had been very distressed and had seemed incensed about the doctor.