Mrs R complained about her husband's care and treatment when he went to A&E in the winter of 2012. Mrs R complained that there was an avoidable delay in staff diagnosing that her husband had had a stroke that led to delay in giving him necessary treatment.
What happened
Mr R attended A&E in late 2012 after an episode of a sudden and severe headache with limb numbness, slurred speech, confusion and dizziness. This began in the early hours of the morning and lasted all day. Mr R's symptoms got worse during the day.
After Mr R saw his GP, his wife called an ambulance. Mr R arrived in A&E at around 6pm. Staff carried out a scan, and told Mr R it was normal. They sent him home, after telling him to go to a clinic the next day.
Mr R went to the clinic the next day. A stroke specialist reviewed the previous day's scan and decided that Mr R had had a stroke. The Trust admitted Mr R and he stayed in hospital until mid–winter 2012.
What we found
We took clinical advice from a stroke specialist and found that the Trust should have admitted Mr R to the acute stroke unit when he presented at A&E. Staff should not have sent him home.
However, while it was a concern that this happened, we were reassured by clinical advice that the delay had not had an adverse impact on the outcome for Mr R. Based on the evidence we saw, we were persuaded that, unfortunately, Mr R would have been left with the same difficulties even if he had been admitted straight away.
Putting it right
The Trust wrote to Mr and Mrs R to acknowledge the failure to admit Mr R to the acute stroke unit and apologise for this.
It produced an action plan to address the failings we identified.
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust
West Midlands
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Apology
Recommendation to learn lessons or draw up an action plan