An NHS trust in England has apologised to a family who were told their dead relative was walking around a hospital ward. The granddaughter of the deceased man complained to the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust after her family received the distressing phone call.
Surrey Live reports that the summary of complaints to the trust said the granddaughter had complained that the family received the call "advising that her grandfather was walking around the ward, despite the fact that they had previously been informed that he had passed away". The error has prompted a change in procedures at the trust.
Single Assessment Forms, with contain each patient's basic personal information and next of kin contact details, will be kept with main medical records from now on to stop the mistake from happening again. The trust's complaints page said the family had received an explanation as to how the error occurred and been given an apology for the "upset caused".
The Royal Surrey County hospital, Haslemere hospital, Milford hospital and Cranleigh village hospital are among those operated by the trust. A trust spokesperson said: “The Trust sincerely apologised for the upset caused to the family by this isolated error and explained how this occurred."
The complaint was upheld by the trust and published in its complaints for March-May 2022. It did not confirm when the patient died or when the call was made.
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