Family could not be with their mother in her final hours, although she was just the other side of a curtain

What happened

Ms G was taken to A&E unconscious. Trust staff told her children, when they arrived, that they could not see her because she was being treated. Ms G's family was left on the other side of Ms G's cubicle curtain for five hours with no explanation about what was going on. They were not allowed to see their mother. They heard their mother have several cardiac arrests and an intubation (putting a tube into Ms G's airway) and heard nursing staff mock the state of Ms G's skin on one occasion. After Ms G's death, her children were told they could see her but they waited a further 45 minutes before taking matters into their own hands and going into the cubicle unaccompanied. It was a further 20 minutes before a nurse came to see them.

When Mr G complained about the way he and his siblings were treated, and questioned aspects of their mother's care, the Trust took five months to give him a written explanation because there was a delay in getting the clinical responses authorised by administrative managers. The Trust also took two months to organise a resolution meeting and did not do so until it became necessary for us to intervene. After our intervention, the Trust organised the meeting within a week.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. There were failings in how staff communicated with Ms G's children and how they treated them. Although we were satisfied that the Trust had taken action to address these issues with its staff, and had improved systems and procedures, it failed to fully acknowledge and remedy the distress its staff caused Ms G's family. The Trust's complaint handling also fell short of the expected standards.

The Trust's explanations about the cause of Ms G's death were clinically reasonable.

Putting it right

The Trust acknowledged and apologised for its failings and paid Ms G's family £500 to recognise the distress caused by its staff's poor communication. It paid £250 to acknowledge the frustration its poor complaint handling caused Ms G's family. It also put in place systems to ensure that authorising complaint responses did not cause unnecessary delay in future.