Elderly patient unfed for 8 days at £842m hospital

Concerns have been raised by inspectors over care of the elderly at Scotland new £842 million hospital after inspectors found one patient had not been fed for eight days.

The Langlands Unit is in a separate building at QEUH. Picture: John Devlin

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) said one of the wards at the Langlands Unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow was “short-staffed every day that it was visited by the inspectors”.

Among the concerns addressed were the quality of care given to elderly patients, particularly in relation to nutrition and feeding.

The patient who received no food for eight days had to be fed through tubes but staff failed to provide any nutrition at all. Another patient was admitted and classed as being at high risk of malnutrition. It was not until ten days later that the person was screened and it was discovered their risk of malnutrition had doubled. The patient lost 7kg over the ten days.

There was no senior charge nurse on Ward 56, with inspectors saying this “resulted in a lack of leadership which contributed to our concerns about patient safety”.

The Langlands Unit has seven wards with a total of 210 beds, in a separate building.

An unannounced inspection was carried out in September, with HIS reporting concerns about “a lack of leadership, low staffing levels, poor nutritional care, a lack of, or delayed, referrals to dietitians, poor completion of documentation, and locked wards restricting patient access in and out of the wards”.

While inspectors said most patients who needed assistance to eat their meals “received help in a timely manner”, they also said there was an “inconsistent approach to staff going back to check patients were managing with their meal or to encourage patients to eat”.

Their report said: “We also observed some staff standing over patients to give them their meal, which was not respectful, and one patient lying in bed with their meal on the bed table – this patient’s meal sat for 15 minutes before one of the inspectors had to alert trained staff.

“Completion of food record charts was poor.

“It was often unclear what food had been offered to the patient and what had actually been ­eaten.”

Margaret McGuire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde nurse director, said: “A new arrangement to protect vulnerable patients has been introduced.

“Record keeping has again been highlighted by the inspectorate as being inconsistent.

“I am confident this is not a reflection on the care being given – our staff put patients at the forefront of every­thing they do.”