Health Service must pay 60,000 euros for discharging a disoriented patient in the Canary Islands

The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has condemned the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) to pay 60,000 euros to the family of a 61-year-old patient who was discharged from the Insular Hospital of Gran Canaria without accompaniment, despite presenting disorientation problems.

In fact, the cameras show how the patient tries to re-enter the health facility and is prevented from doing so, so he then remained unable to be located for six hours from half past ten at night until half past four in the morning.

The relatives indicated that a doctor decided on September 27, 2022, six hours after admission, to discharge the patient despite the fact that the relatives had warned that they should be notified, given his condition as an A.A. patient, which are those who require attention and accompaniment.

There is a record of the call made by the family to the doctors to contact them when they decide that he is in a condition to leave the hospital, given that "he is not aware of his actions and is disoriented at all times".

Subsequently, they could not find the patient, so the family decided to go to the National Police and the Civil Guard until they found him, six hours later, completely disoriented.

Initially, the Legal Services of the Government and the Court rejected the request to be compensated because they considered that a formal claim had not been presented and that the document filed did not contain "the minimum specific requirements" to have this consideration.

The TSJC now responds that the two complainants "are people who do not have knowledge of the law and therefore, when submitting the claim a day later to the SCS, they omitted some relevant issues due to ignorance".

The conviction is based on the fact that the affected person had an A. A. card, so he presents a situation of greater vulnerability, so the waiting time to be attended is minimized, fulfilling the appointment time so that they are as little as possible in the health facility.

This condition also guarantees that they are accompanied by a caregiver at all times, especially when they go to the emergency room and tests are performed on them.

Despite this, a doctor decided that the man could leave the hospital without notifying the relatives, although they had requested it by telephone as recorded.

"This situation has caused irreparable pain and moral damage to my clients and their families," indicates the complaining lawyer, who adds that there is no doubt that we are "in the presence of an abnormal functioning of the public service".

The TSJC confirms that in the face of "such a sad event as the one at hand, together with the extremely deficient functioning of those responsible for the disappearance of the patient, there is no objection, but quite the opposite, to revoking the initial sentence" and issuing another in favor of the compensation of the relatives.

The man was admitted on September 27, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. after an ambulance transferred him to the Hospital because he "was talking incoherent things", and then he was not allowed any accompaniment either, so the relatives had to limit themselves to making several calls.

In the last one, they were informed that he had been discharged "because he was fine", after which they tried to contact him through his mobile phone but it was turned off, to which was added the fact that he also had no money to return to his home, in the south of Gran Canaria.

The Hospital officials maintained that they were never informed of his A. A. condition, there was no history of neurological disease, he was under observation for six hours and it is ensured that he was oriented and attended to simple and complex orders. Finally, it was decided to discharge him and prescribe antibiotics after diagnosing him only with a urinary tract infection.