Trust sent patient home without appropriate investigations

What happened

When Mr J went into hospital, clinicians diagnosed that he had had a minor heart attack. Staff treated him for this and told him he would need an angiogram to check his cardiac condition and risk.

However, staff then discharged him before he had an angiogram. The Trust referred him to another trust for an angiogram, and asked for this to be carried out 'fairly quickly'. The other trust told Mr J that it would take six to eight weeks for an angiogram appointment. Mr J was unwilling to wait so long and paid £334 for a private angiogram. This showed severe coronary artery disease and Mr J had bypass surgery.

Mr J complained to the Trust, but it said he had chosen to have an angiogram privately and it refused to reimburse him.

What we found

The Trust did not assess Mr J's risk of having another heart attack properly, as it should have. Our adviser retrospectively assessed this risk as 4.4%.

It was unreasonable for the Trust to discharge Mr J without an angiogram. Guidelines say that for patients who have had a heart attack and whose risk of another is over 3%, an angiogram should be carried out within 96 hours. This did not happen in Mr J's case and the Trust did not acknowledge this.

Putting it right

The Trust reimbursed Mr J's private healthcare costs of £334 and paid him £250 in recognition of the stress he was caused. It also apologised to Mr J for his poor experience and considered how it could improve its processes to prevent a recurrence.