Trust provided reasonable medical care but not nursing care

What happened

Mr P had his gall bladder removed at the Trust in autumn 2013 and was discharged. He continued to have pain and went to the Trust's surgical admissions unit a few days later, where he was vomiting with pain. Despite this, the nurses did not give him any pain relief and he was sent home. His pain continued and he had various tests, which did not identify the problem.

Later, Mr P was diagnosed with an infection and taken back to the Trust where he was given antibiotics and his wound was drained and cleaned. When Mr P's problems continued, he was readmitted to the Trust with a possible hernia. Eventually, in early 2014, Mr P underwent exploratory surgery, where a small lump of fat was removed from the original surgery site. This resolved his problems.

Mr P complained that there was a lack of communication from the Trust, he was treated inadequately by staff, he was misdiagnosed and the Trust failed to recognise an infection that had developed. Mr P said that as a result of this, he was put through unnecessary pain and frustration.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. There were no failings in the clinical care Mr P received.

However, we found that there were failings in the nursing care. This care was not in line with recognised quality standards and established good practice, and resulted in Mr P experiencing unnecessary pain and frustration.

Putting it right

The Trust apologised for what went wrong, and also put a plan in place to learn lessons from the failings to make sure they didn't happen again.