Complaint about early discharge not upheld

What happened

Mrs B was discharged four days after surgery and had to be admitted a few days later as an emergency. She stayed in hospital for almost two months as she had a series of serious complications and infections which left her with long term health problems. She complained that the Trust contributed to these complications by discharging her too soon after surgery and not providing her with adequate care. She said when she was readmitted as an emergency the Trust took too long to deal with the complications effectively. She also complained about some elements of the nursing care.

What we found

We did not uphold this complaint. There were some problems with the way Mrs B was discharged, but these did not cause or contribute to the subsequent complications. Mrs B was very unlucky to have all the complications that she did, but they are all accepted complications after the surgery and were not the fault of the Trust. The complications were managed and treated as they should have been when Mrs B was readmitted, and there were no delays with this.

We did not find that the evidence substantiated Mrs B's complaints about the nursing care, but we did note that one of these issues had not been investigated properly by the Trust. However, the complaint handling was reasonable overall.