Medical Negligence

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The death of Dirk Ooms: NHS mistakes and cover-ups
By Jan Ooms (Dirk's son)

The Complaints

On that day, 15/1/98, I wrote to both the Hospital and the Fife Health Board to ask for an investigation about the circumstances of his treatment and to provide me with explanations as to the cause and reason for my father's sudden and unexpected death. While my father was in intensive care for 3 days, we, the family, had not been told everything and there were still questions both unanswered and unasked. They responded to both my letters with: "The NHS Complaint Procedures". I was not making any complaints at the time since I did not have any information and had, in any case, never even heard of these procedures. In retrospect, I now understand why, instead of investigating my father's death, they chose instead to deal with the situation through the NHS Complaint Procedures; they are more experienced than the complainant in manipulating the procedures to their advantage.

My mother, sister, and myself were then obliged to pursue 2 of their NHS Complaint Procedures which were totally unsatisfactory; there was no investigation, the statements of medical staff were never questioned, and all this without us being given all the facts. Very little information was voluntarily provided unless specifically asked for and even then it was usually incomplete or incorrect. Non-medical people are unable to know what questions to ask, especially when the evidence is of a clinical nature, nor are they able to question medical explanation. The onus always seemed to be on us, the complainants, to provide the evidence of wrong doing while those investigating the complaint were there to defend the medical profession. The statements and testimonies of medical staff were never challenged or even investigated thoroughly. How could lay people on investigation panels question or even understand medical argument or evidence? There was no serious attempt to ascertain the truth. We then took the complaints to the Health Service Ombudsman. He initially refused to investigate the complaints but changed his mind shortly after my family contacted the Scottish Parliament with a petition asking for improvements to the NHS Complaint Procedures. Given the Ombudsman's initial refusal to investigate our complaints was it likely that he would then uphold them?

I also complained to the GMC on 1/9/99 about the GP's deception in deliberately playing down the severity of my father's illness and her subsequent claim that he deteriorated after she left him. This was blatantly untrue and since her story was believed without question it deceived those investigating the NHS complaint about her.

The Health Service Ombudsman upheld neither complaint.

Complaint against the Hospital

The Ombudsman made the following recommendations:

• GPs should notify the duty ENT officer of any potential supraglottitis patients
• administration of oxygen to be continued if possible from ambulance to the hospital
• Ambulance Service and Hospital should review their procedures for handing over patients
• patients arriving at A & E should be triaged
• recording system at A & E should be reviewed

I also draw attention to the following:

• the hospital's own earlier internal review recommended a more formal protocol for receipt of patients at A & E
• the hospital, sometime after my father's death and before the Ombudsman's investigation surreptitiously changed its protocols on airway obstruction and epiglottitis for adults
• in 2000 the hospital announced a £1.3m upgrading of the A & E dept
• the hospital was reprimanded by the Procurator Fiscal for not reporting my father's death
• the hospital, as a result of the unsatisfactory way it handled my complaint, changed its own complaint procedures

I now refer to the Ombudsman's report to identify:

• blatant bias in favour of the hospital
• investigation was not sufficiently thorough
• evidence was ignored
• unacceptable ignorance of adult epiglottitis by the Ombudsman's assessors

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