NHS Fife was recently contacted by STV Scotland Tonight and asked to respond to concerns raised by the families of three patients who died after being in our care. A detailed response was subsequently provided to STV, which is publicly available on the NHS Fife website: Statement - Patient Concerns | NHS Fife.
NHS Fife is fully committed to openness, transparency, and accountability in all that we do, and acknowledges the failings in the care of Mrs Dunn, Mr Nolan and Mrs McLean shared in the STV Scotland Tonight programme, however, these experiences are not reflective of the overall standard of care provided by our health board.
Our health board always strives to provide patients with a high standard of care that is compassionate and aligned to individual needs. This level of care and treatment is achieved for the vast majority of patients, thanks to the skills, expertise and dedication of healthcare staff working across Fife.
The three patients whose stories were shared with STV Scotland Tonight – Linda Dunn, John Nolan, and Agnes McLean – did not receive the standard of care that patients should expect, and indeed deserve. Our senior staff have met with the families on a number of occasions, both individually and as a group, to hear their concerns. NHS Fife has also apologised for the failings in their loved one’s care; however, we recognise that doing so cannot take away the hurt and upset they have experienced.
When the families came forward to share their concerns, NHS Fife carried out case reviews into the care of all three patients, to help provide the families with answers to their questions around the level of care and to ensure that as an organisation we learn from any errors and put in place measures to help us continually improve the services we provide.
If patients or their families are not happy with NHS Fife’s response to a complaint, they also have the right to ask that their concerns are investigated by an independent third-party, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. Of the cases highlighted by STV News, only the family of Mrs Dunn have chosen to ask the Ombudsman to look into their loved one’s care. We are not aware whether the families of Mr Nolan and Mrs McLean have chosen to ask the Ombudsman to independently investigate their care, although this option remains available to them.
While the aim is always to provide the highest standard of care in all of our services, we are grateful to those who take the time to raise any concerns with us through our patient experience service. We work hard to ensure that this experience is as supportive as possible at what can be an extremely difficult time. We strive to ensure a timely response to all complaints, however in some cases due to the complexity of the case, this work can take longer to ensure a full and detailed response.
As with any feedback we receive, and the outcomes of these investigations, we use the findings to help us to learn, improve, and adapt our practices where necessary, all in the interests of improving the quality of care we provide across all our services. NHS Fife remains focused on learning and improving to ensure people in Fife receive the best possible standard of care, whenever this is required.
[ENDS]
