Patient given amputation that 'wasn't needed' amid failings at hospital

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Patients suffered from inadequate care, including amputations that were not needed, as a result of failings in vascular services in a hospital.A damning report completed by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) of England found severe deficiencies in a number of patients' care at the establishment.

It reviewed the case record of 44 patients under the care of vascular services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, Denbighshire, Wales, as reported by North Wales Live.Problems with documentation, keeping records, consent-taking and communication between medics were all highlighted.Following the publication of the report, the Welsh Conservatives demanded a public inquiry be opened while the Plaid Cymru party called for the vascular services at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board t be returned to special measures.As well as highlighting a “loss of dignity” suffered by some patients, the report’s findings included: An amputee “needing to be carried to the toilet” by his wife after being discharged without a care plan;A patient being given an “unnecessary and futile” amputation when “palliation and conservative therapy should have been considered instead”.

The report states that the risk from major amputation for the patient was “extremely high”;Clinicians “possibly working outside the limits of their competence”;In seven cases, clinical records did not include patient outcomes, while in six cases there were no clinical records available for the review team to assess.The report stated: “The review team were strongly of the opinion that the majority of the surgical notes and supporting correspondence, results and reports were disorganised, illegible and incomplete.”While the review team noted good practice in some areas, the report mades nine