Instead of being assessed and triaged by the registered nurse on duty, the woman lay in the back of her daughter’s car in the clinic car park while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
In hospital she was diagnosed with multiple stomach ulcers.
In a report released today, health and disability commissioner Anthony Hill says the nurse failed to assess the woman, failed to contact the ambulance service, and failed to offer any assistance monitoring her as she awaited an ambulance.
However, the registered nurse told the HDC she believed the ambulance service would respond faster if the patient rather than the clinic called.
The ambulance service has backed up this statement.
Nurse talks loudly across reception area
The patient’s daughter says she recalls the nurse saying loudly across the reception area that they could not do anything for her mother if her complaint involved blood and then asking if she was a New Zealand resident.
Then the nurse asked her to call an ambulance from outside the building, the patient’s daughter told the HDC.
She sensed undertones of racism in their treatment.
All patients' residency queried
The registered nurse told the HDC she could not recall the incident, but asks all patients needing an ambulance about their residency status as it affects whether they will be charged or not.
The receptionist at the time says she recollects the registered nurse explaining in a very kind and caring way that there would be a long wait time at the clinic and the woman would probably be sent to hospital anyway, so it was up to her whether she stayed at the clinic or called an ambulance.
She recalls the nurse saying that for the clinic to call the ambulance they would have to put the woman into the system and the daughter could call the ambulance privately from outside the front of the building.
The nurse told the HDC she accepts she made a mistake and should have triaged the patient and called the ambulance, but she does not accept she asked the daughter to call an ambulance from outside the building, saying there must have been a communication breakdown.
Departures from expected standards severe
“Departures from expected standards were severe,” Mr Hill says.
He finds the nurse in breach both for her failure to undertake initial assessment of the patient, and her failure to facilitate a safe transfer and makes adverse comment over handover to the ambulance service.
He recommends the nurse write a letter of apology to the woman’s family, that she undertake training in effective patient communication and report back to the HDC on changes in her practice.
Mr Hill did not find the A&M clinic in breach.
The clinic believes that had its policies and procedures been followed the situation would not have occurred, but has updated its policies anyway.
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