Patient discharged without appropriate support

What happened

Mr L went into hospital for a spinal cord stimulator to control his pain. Trust staff were concerned about his high dose of morphine and reduced this during his admission. Mr L was then in touch with the Trust on numerous occasions about his problem with the stimulator and the discontinuation of his morphine. Trust staff felt communications from Mr L amounted to bullying and discharged him from the neuroscience service. Staff recorded this in Mr L's medical records.

The pain team said staff could only support Mr L on issues in its remit and the stimulator was not its responsibility. The team did not want to put Mr L back on morphine. The pain team offered Mr L psychological therapy and his GP made arrangements with the manufacturer of the stimulator to fix the problems he was having.

What we found

The Trust's decision to withdraw Mr L's opioid medication was within the bounds of established good practice. The Trust's decision to record its perception of bullying was appropriate. However, there were shortcomings in the Trust's neuroscience team's decision to discharge Mr L without warning and without putting alternative support in place.

Putting it right

The Trust acknowledged its service failure and apologised for the injustice. It paid Mr L £500 for the injustice it had caused. The Trust also prepared an action plan to demonstrate learning from the identified failings.