"Standards need to improve"

As a family, we have spent the majority of 2018 attempting to draw  the attention of NHS Orkney clinicians to my father’s health concerns.  It has been a particularly difficult time for my family.  My father fought hard to get the care he so desperately needed from NHS Orkney and NHS Grampian. 

After a period of being hospitalised when on holiday in early 2018, my father returned home to Orkney to experience what we feel was sub-standard communication and care from hospital doctors at the Balfour Hospital at NHS Orkney and his GP practice, Heilendi Practice in Kirkwall.  From April 2018, my father continually presented at his GP practice and attended hospital appointments at NHS Orkney and NHS Grampian.  Clinicians at these boards failed to provide appropriate diagnosis, medication, communication and continuity of care despite almost weekly presentations at his GP practice and hospital.  My father was badly let down by an inadequate healthcare system which removed him from vital medication for over a four month period; failed to accurately record or treat his symptoms; and provided a continual lack of joined up care and communication.  This situation is completely unacceptable.

We believe that the total lack of care my father received culminated in him suffering two strokes. He subsequently died in late August 2018.   NHS Orkney and NHS Grampian failed to provide my father with the appropriate standard of care.  This was despite my late father, mother, sister and myself continually chasing professionals based at NHS Orkney and NHS Grampian to seek their help and support.  Hospital doctors based in both NHS boards repeatedly told my parents everything was going to be OK with my father's health, yet completely failed to provide him the care and support he required.  Within an hour of leaving a hospital appointment having been told he was well, my father had his first stroke.  We were ignored by a health care system which we believe did not know what they were doing.

I have submitted a complaint about my father's care to the Scottish Government along with NHS Orkney and Grampian.  This has been followed up with another complaint to NHS Orkney over the treatment we as a family have received since my father's death.  The second complaint highlights the complete lack of care and compassion in recent communications from NHS Orkney. 

We believe standards need to radically improve at NHS Orkney.  My father was not some medication experiment. He was a patient who deserved the high quality of care we should expect as a basic human right.  Words will not bring my father back but I am determined to fight for his legacy.  I would not want anyone to go through what we as a family have experienced from NHS Orkney and NHS Grampian.  The situation has horrified and shocked us.  It has been a very stressful and anxious time for my family.  I will not stop until I see noticeable improvements in patient care in the North of Scotland: the people of Orkney deserve it.