Information failings at Scottish health authority led to inaction on adverse clinical events

A Scottish health authority might have placed patients at risk by failing to take action on critical incident reviews for five years after “losing” the information.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran has been accused by the Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion of the most serious failings in record management and information recovery he has seen in his nine years in office.

The problem came to light only when a charge nurse, Rab Wilson, asked for copies of reports from 2005 onwards into serious adverse events that were not being made routinely available to staff. As a result, …