"Disappointing and distressing."

What I liked

When my father went back to the hospital ( A and E) with his symptoms, he was then dealt with promptly and effectively by the staff concerned. Sadly this was not evident in the lead up to this.

What could be improved

Following a clinical procedure - see below, my father was not listened to initially by the consultant and the nurses dealing with my father as the procedure was finishing. ( my father did say the consultant may not have heard but the nurses did) He then informed the member of staff discharging him and despite his symptoms being strange/ unusual which were noted he was then discharged. This appears to have been an error of oversight, apathy or lack of knowledge. This I feel warrants looking into in that other patients are listened to, their comments are heard and acted on. Also there is possibly a training issue in terms of presenting symptoms.

Anything else?

My father attended to have a colonoscopy with polyp removal on Tuesday 22nd November. As this was finishing he expressed discomfort in his neck and shoulders to the consultant and the nurses. This was not acted on. This discomfort further developed and my fathers neck swelled considerably. He then spoke to the nurse/ staff about this and was told that this was very unusual. He was then discharged. This was about 4pm. My father rang me about 6 pm and I told him to go straight back to the A and E department which he immediately did. His symptoms were then taken extremely seriously and it appeared that he had a perforated colon. He was then observed by a group of students as his symptoms were unusual and he was taken by ambulance to the Royal Preston hospital. Obviously he was very shocked and distressed as were the family that he had been allowed to leave the hospital earlier with these presenting symptoms. We were then informed that this was an extremely serious complication which could result in an operation, a possible colostomy and there was also a 1 in 20 chance that he may not survive the operation. We have no issues with the care that he received at the Royal Preston and the staff there were excellent. Our issue is the fact that whilst at Chorley hospital, he informed and was let go home with serious symptoms of a potentially life threatening condition that were not recognised. We accept that complications do and did occur, but I am extremely unhappy about the discharge following the procedure. Fortunately at this time my father has not developed complications since and it is thought that the perforation is healing spontaneously and we sincerely hope that this progress continues. However the outcome could have been totally different and in fact complications could still occur. I would welcome information as to why this occurred but I am raising this in order that other patients are perhaps helped by my fathers unfortunate and distressing experience.