Health chiefs in Ayrshire and Arran have been told they must apologise to the family of a dying patient who was left ‘all day’ in a hospital waiting room in nightwear after a discharge error.

The elderly patient, who was suffering from end-stage kidney failure, was released from hospital in error with the wrong medication.

And delayed prognosis of the patient’s condition led to an early death according to the patient’s family.

A Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) investigation found that there were missed opportunities to diagnose the patient’s deteriorating condition earlier after they were admitted to hospital three times over a short period of time with severe stomach and back pain.

The SPSO found that whilst there had been “reasonable approach to investigating A’s symptoms on their first admission”, there were “missed opportunities by the board to diagnose A’s kidney failure and infection”, and the “family’s concerns had not been given appropriate consideration during the second admission”.

On the patient’s third admission, an SPSO report states: “There was a delay in the clinical consideration of A’s abnormal blood results, and in recognising the severity of their condition.”

The patient died soon after their third admission.

They also found that the patient should not have been discharged from hospital following their second admission, saying that they were not clinically fit to be discharged.

The ombudsman also criticised the way the health board managed this discharge, with the elderly patient enduring a “lengthy wait” in the discharge lounge while dressed in just their nightwear, and was taken, still in the same nightwear, to a care home by taxi instead of in an ambulance.

Family members said this was extremely distressing and undignified.

The patient had also been sent home with the wrong discharge letter and medication, and the SPSO says there was a failure to communicate the patient’s discharge arrangements to the family.

A spokeswoman for NHS A&A said: “We sincere apologise to the family of A that we did not meet the high standards of care we strive for.

We have fully accepted all the recommendations in the SPSO report.”

“We have addressed the issues highlighted and made the appropriate changes, to ensure test results in a patient’s clinical records are followed up appropriately and discharge arrangements are carefully assessed.

“In order to ensure learning across the organisation, we will share the findings from the report with staff, in particular with those responsible for the operational delivery of the service and with our clinical governance teams.”