"Poor record keeping"

My son was admitted to various wards in RAH on four separate occasions over a 19 day period. He was suffering from seizures and on two of the four admissions he was so poorly he had to be treated in Resus. The staff there were wonderful as were the paramedics who brought my son to the RAH. All of the staff were caring but the main issues were that my son was being treated for an acute neurological condition in a hospital that does not have a resident neurologist.

Some of the nursing staff seemed to have little knowledge of the various types of seizures. I could not understand why I had to keep repeating my son's medical history, especially from admissions that took place days earlier. Only then did I discover that each time a patient is admitted a new set of notes are created. The premise is that these separate notes will eventually merge with each other but that it can take a week or two before this happens. So over four separate admissions in 19 days my son's records were not visible to staff on his latest admission. Prior to finding out this situation I was left thinking either the nurses were not writing his notes or the doctors were not reading them.

My son was being cared for by staff who had no clue that the current admission was his 2nd or 3rd in a very short period of time. He was discharged after a couple of days on an inappropriate ward only to return a few days later still in the same situation.

I feel that this is extremely poor management and not exactly cost-effective. It was also possibly life-threatening for my son. When he was eventually seen by a neurologist from another hospital, his medication was adjusted which appears to have resolved the situation but this should not have taken 4 admissions for this to happen. I have sought help from my local MSP regarding this matter as I am utterly shocked that there is such poor care for neurology patients.

The nurses were kind and caring but seemingly not trained to any degree in neurology so it's hardly surprising that they failed to recognise my son's partial focal seizures and did not record them on his latest set of notes. Consequently, he was discharged without any adjustment to his medication but with an appointment request to see a neurologist at some point in the future. I do not find this treatment acceptable.