Ombudsman calls for improved care for dying patients

A 79-year-old woman who telephoned her son from her hospital bed to say she was dying was one of the worst complaints about end-of-life care received by ombudsman Peter Tyndall.

The woman, a patient in an acute hospital, died later the same day. Her son went to the hospital as soon as she called him, but was not told for a further four hours after his arrival of the seriousness of his mother’s condition.

As a result of the hospital’s failure to speak to him, other members of his family did not have time to travel home to be with their mother when she died.