Summary
C, an advocacy and support worker, complained on behalf of their client (A) who was admitted to University Hopsital Hairmyres with delirium which was found to be caused by a urine infection. A was seen by a doctor who firstly detained them for 72 hours under the Mental Health Act. When the time period ended the detention period was extended to 28 days. A was then transferred to another hospital where the staff did not feel that there was a requirement for the detention and it was rescinded. A felt that the decision to detain them was not clinically required and that the hospital failed to carry out an appropriate mental health assessment on their admission to hospital.
We took independent advice from a consultant psychiatrist. We found that an appropriate mental health assessement was carried out based on A's symptoms. We found that although A did have a urine infection which would have caused their delirium, there was sufficient clinical indication that A was suffering from a mental health problem and that there were grounds to detain them under the Mental Health Act.
We did not uphold the complaint.
Related reading
View Decision Report 202003555 as a PDF (24.24 KB) Updated: March 24, 2021