Patient's jewellery and clothes went missing

What happened

Mrs P went to A&E with a facial injury. She had already taken her clothes off for an examination and then went to the X–ray department, where staff told her to remove her jewellery. She was transferred to another hospital later that day, wearing her hospital gown, but found that her property had not been sent with her.

Mrs P's family complained to the Hospital. The Hospital said that the nurse to whom Mrs P gave her jewellery was adamant that he had passed the jewellery to Mrs P's husband. Mrs P's husband was sure that when he went back to the Hospital to ask where the items were, the nurse told him he had put the jewellery in a bag with Mrs P's clothes.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. There were conflicting accounts of what happened, and the only agreement was that Mrs P had given the nurse the jewellery after she had taken it off. There were no records of what happened to the jewellery or clothes.

While the Hospital had an overall policy that it did not assume liability for items brought to the hospital, part of the policy said that staff must take a record on occasions where 'articles of value' are not handed in for safe keeping (in the Trust's general office or the night safe). The Hospital did acknowledge that Mrs P gave the jewellery to the nurse, but there was no record to confirm it was not handed in for safe keeping. So we concluded the Hospital was liable for the loss of the jewellery. We did not find the Hospital liable for the loss of the clothes as they were not classed as 'articles of value' and therefore we would not have expected the Hospital to have recorded them.

Putting it right

The Hospital accepted our recommendations and reimbursed Mrs P £570 for the value of her jewellery and also apologised to her.