A 78-year-old woman has hit out at health bosses, claiming she was abandoned in a wheelchair for 12 hours without food, drink, or access to a toilet at the north’s flagship hospital.
NHS Highland has launched an urgent inquiry into Norma Faulkner’s treatment on the day she was discharged from Raigmore in Inverness.
The widow, from Aultbea in Wester Ross, spent more than two weeks in hospital after suffering a ruptured liver and was looking forward to leaving at 7.30am on the morning she was due to go home.
She said staff got her up and ready for the patient transfer service, but no one came to collect her from the high dependency ward 7C.
The OAP claims she waited patiently in her wheelchair, watching as her bed was stripped and remade for the next occupant, until around 10am when tiredness overcame her and she lay down on the clean sheets.
At this point, she said, she had her only contact with staff – when someone told her she was not allowed on the newly-made bed and she was wheeled away to a small reception area off the main ward.
Mrs Faulkner claims she and another woman in a wheelchair were left there “out of sight, out of mind” until their transport finally arrived at 7.30pm.
Her minister has now lodged a formal complaint with NHS Highland on her behalf, claiming the incident raised questions about the place for “good nursing, common sense and humanity” in the system.
Last night a spokesman for the health authority said it was investigating the case “as a matter of priority.”
Mrs Faulkner stressed she had no issues with the staff who cared for her on a day to day basis – but said she had grave concerns that their busy workloads were impacting on patient care.
“I was there all day and no one came to give us a cup of tea or anything,” she said.
“The nurses are so busy – it’s just shocking.
“It was not a good experience but I cannot blame the nurses. They just don’t have enough time.”
Mrs Faulkner had been in Raigmore since July 14 when she was taken there by ambulance after her liver ruptured, and was put on insulin injections to help her cope with her diabetes.
Gairloch minister, the Rev Heather Widdows, said the “basic requirements of any human being – fluids, nourishment and being able to go to the toilet, were denied” her while she was waiting to go home on July 31.
She added: “I fear the tick box culture is a refuge for those who, rushed off their feet, are inevitably going to make mistakes.
“I do wonder whether a box was ticked as Mrs Faulkner and her companion were wheeled into the reception area, indicating they had been discharged.
“It would certainly explain their non-existent status, but also leads me to wonder what has happened to good nursing, common sense and humanity, that nobody even thought to check they had gone.”
The minister said that as Mrs Faulkner was finally being wheeled out to her transport she told the doctor who arranged her discharge that she had been waiting 12 hours.
The alleged reply – “Well, you’re going now” – was “dismissive” and insulting, said the minister.
Ian Blackford MP said he would also be raising Mrs Faulkner’s claims with health bosses.
“I am deeply concerned at this and will be taking it up with NHS Highland. If this is what happened, then it is unacceptable,” he said.
“The health service has a duty of care and there ought to be adequate staff on board whether patients are being treated in recuperation or discharge.
“This kind of thing is unacceptable at any level.”