Another woman has IV left in arm
BY HARRIET PALMER
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Two elderly women have been sent home from Taranaki Base Hospital with the remains of an intravenous drip lodged in their arms in the past 10 days.
In both cases, hospital staff have been unwilling to travel to the women's Waitara homes to remove the IV lines, leaving family members scrambling for alternatives.
The hospital has apologised, admitting the scenario is "below standard" but insists the right processes are in place.
Yesterday Lyn Hoskin contacted the Taranaki Daily News extremely concerned her 74-year-old mother, Josie Lineham, had been discharged from a three-day stay at Taranaki Base unaware an IV remained embedded in her arm.
On Tuesday last week, 78-year-old Joy Barlow was sent home from the emergency department in the same condition.
Mrs Barlow's daughter had been asked by the hospital to remove the IV herself after she rang to alert them.
Mrs Hoskin said Mrs Barlow's experience had "gutted" her family and she was astonished it was then allowed to happen to her own mother.
"That isn't good enough. What are their procedures like if they have allowed this to happen twice? I'm absolutely amazed."
Mrs Hoskin was contacted by the hospital when staff realised Mrs Lineham's IV had been forgotten.
"If they hadn't rung, Mum wouldn't have known it wasn't meant to be there, and it would still be in her arm," she said.
She had then asked for a nurse to come to Waitara to remove the device but, like Mrs Barlow, was told this was not possible.
Mrs Hoskin said the hospital had been unapologetic, but had arranged for staff at the local medical centre to remove the device as she was unable to bring Mrs Lineham to New Plymouth. "It's hard enough having her in hospital. She's been suffering for months [with severe arthritis]. This has really knocked her back."
The family of Mrs Barlow, the first IV victim, was also amazed to hear the same mistake was made twice, asking if the hospital had learnt anything from their mother's experience.
A letter of apology had been sent by general manager of hospital services Joy Farley to Mrs Barlow following the incident.
However, daughter Stephanie Dekker said this meant nothing now that Mrs Lineham had gone through the same experience.
"It means nothing when you hear it has happened again within a week. I can't believe they turned around and did the exact same thing. What sort of an outfit do they run?"
Mrs Dekker said the hospital needed to deal with an obvious lack of staff.
"Management need to stand up and realise they are so under-staffed and the staff are so under pressure they are basically playing Russian roulette with people's lives. They need to be accountable."
Yesterday Ms Farley said the fact the hospital had contacted the family of Mrs Lineham showed there were appropriate procedures in place to identify the problem.
"First of all, we don't aim for these things to happen. It's not the standard," she said.
"I am genuinely sorry, but it does represent a genuine oversight that was identified and arrangements were made to fix it."
Ms Farley said hundreds of IVs were removed a day in the hospital and it was inevitable sometimes "these things would be overlooked".
She said she was willing to travel to Waitara to speak with the families personally.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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