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'Mother Died of Hospital Neglect'
By Raymond Duncan, The Herald
United Kingdom
April 27, 2005
A former lord provost of Edinburgh has accused staff at a flagship Scottish hospital of killing his mother through neglect.
Norman Irons, a businessman who is also the Danish consul, claimed the care she received at an orthopaedic ward of the £184m Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was "a disgrace in a developed western country".
The former civic leader said Anne Irons, 89, would have been given better treatment in prison and has called on health chiefs to resign.
Mr Irons, a leading member of the SNP, also said that if the law had allowed it he would have lodged a complaint to the procurator-fiscal of "institutional neglect".
In a letter to Brian Cavanagh, the chairman of NHS Lothian, and to Andy Kerr, the health minister, he listed what he called "a tranche of complaints" about the care of his mother.
The letter, written "with a mixture of regret, frustration and anger", claims her weight plummeted when lack of care led to the development of bedsores and mouth and throat infections while nutrition and fluid intake were not properly monitored.
He also said Mrs Irons received no bath and only two showers in 28 days, that her nightclothes were left soiled in her locker for relatives to collect and clinical waste was left at the bedside.
Mr Irons, who said her care in the ward contrasted with the excellent treatment within other parts of the ERI and the city's Astley Ainslie Hospital, de-scribed how in her short stay in hospital his mother was transformed from an independent lady who took great pride in her appearance to a "frail invalid who had lost all self esteem and, ultimately, the will to live".
He said his mother, a former pupil of Glasgow's Bellahouston Academy, was admitted to hospital after a fall at her Craigleith, Edinburgh, home when she fractured her pelvis. He claims that the four weeks she spent in the ward led to her death on April 9 from
bronchopneumonia.
Mr Irons wrote: "In short, the ERI received a patient in good order except for a fracture which needed time to heal. When she died, her upper arms were thinner than a broom pole - although a broom pole would not have the bed sores."
He said family members were treated "as interfering relatives". He intervened when it became clear she was losing weight and her morale was dropping and also when she developed a severe throat infection.
Mr Irons said: "Her only fault, apparently, was that she was too old to be a matter of concern and, of course, she was not part of any waiting list. Quite the opposite. She was a bed blocker and her death cleared a space."
Mr Irons called for greater resources to be handed to nurses on the orthopaedic ward and for either the chairman or the chief executive of NHS Lothian to resign.
"Somebody must be responsible for it. It is an institution that's there to keep people alive, not to kill them. It's supposed to be a flagship general hospital."
He said health chiefs should be lobbying ministers for more funds to ensure elderly patients were properly nursed and fed in their hospital.
Stuart Smith, chairman of NHS Lothian University Hospitals Division, said he wanted to express his condolences to Mr Irons and his family for their loss, adding: "I have already spoken to Mr Irons and invited him to meet with us . . . to discuss his concerns". He said that an investigation was ongoing.
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