KEY POINTS:
The country's top health watchdog has slammed the care of an elderly man who died after "unsatisfactory" delays at the North Shore Hospital emergency department.
Hungry, dehydrated and in pain, the 84-year-old was left waiting for four hours with a dislocated hip when he should have been treated within 30 minutes, say hospital guidelines.
Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said the delay was "clearly unsatisfactory" and criticised the Waitemata District Health Board for failing to update the man's family about his condition and care during his eight-week stay.
With a "complex" medical history, including heart disease, cancer and strokes, the man, who is known only as Mr A, developed a severe hospital-acquired infection after hip surgery and died two months later.
Paterson did not criticise the patient's clinical care but said he would have benefited from greater continuity of care.
The family complained to hospital chief executive Dr Dwayne Crombie through National Party MP Tony Ryall before their father's death in the first half of 2006.
His two daughters said staff lacked com- passion and failed to update them about their father's treatment and condition.
Full urine bottles were left by his head, and on one occasion the elderly man had to pass water in a jug, a practice Paterson described as "unhygienic and unpleasant".
He said it was "troubling" to hear the family felt nursing staff did not care about the patient.
The hospital apologised for the lack of communication in October 2006, but the man's family laid a complaint with the Health and Disability Commission the following February.
"Even in his dying hours the staff did little," the man's daughter was quoted as saying in Paterson's report.
"We asked for the tubes and drips to be removed. Nothing happened until my son, a trained senior nurse, was so disgusted and upset, he removed the feeding drip."
The man died later that day and the North Shore Coroner decided to hold an inquest, which has since been postponed.
"It is disappointing that on more than one occasion family members turned up to scheduled meetings with hospital staff to find they had not been organised," Paterson wrote.
"Hospital staff may have suspected Mr A would not survive the complication that occurred, but it is clear he and his family did not expect he would die in hospital. He wanted to die at home."
Waitemata DHB chief medical officer Dr Johan Rosman noted Paterson acknowledged the long waiting time and lack of communication were unacceptable.
"It was really sad that family had to roam the hospital. [Paterson] was absolutely right and the staff involved have been spoken to." Rosman said patients were now given a staff member as a point of contact when they were admitted.
The hospital has been plagued with overcrowding problems.
In 2006 Waitemata DHB left patients recovering from surgery to sleep in the corridors because there were no empty beds.
