Dennis Warner

(1) Mr Warner suffered from advanced dementia and was the main carer for his elderly wife who also suffered with dementia. He was given information about managing his injury on discharge which he was demonstrably unable to comprehend or remember. Specifically, it was recorded by the examining clinicians that he was unable to answer any orientation questions or to remember the reason for his being in hospital.

(2) The Emergency department was full beyond capacity and he was examined in a meeting room as no cubicles were available (3) chest xray was performed. I heard in written evidence from a Consultant in Emergency Medicine that chest xray is a suboptimal modality for imaging the chest after injury often underestimating both the number of rib fractures and the extent of any intrathoracic injury(4) there was a delay in senior clinician review of the chest xrays after reporting and a passive approach to contacting Mr Warner was taken by the reviewing clinician. An incorrect number was held for Mr Warner but even if contact had been made then he would have had difficulty comprehending and retaining the information; attempts to contact to contact the GP by phone were abandoned because the phone was not answered. A letter was sent which described as misleading. Consequently the efforts made to contact and recall the patient were inadequate.