Ronald Flynn's items including false teeth went missing at Maidstone Hospital
00:01, 22 June 2015
An 86-year-old amputee struggled to eat and speak after a hospital lost his false teeth.
Ronald Flynn was treated in Maidstone Hospital after falling and injuring his other leg.
During his stay his dentures went missing – as did his trousers, vest and reading glasses –sparking written complaints from his family, which they say have been unanswered for three months.
Mr Flynn, of Hayle Road, was admitted in early March and the trousers he was wearing vanished soon afterwards.
Nephew, Bruce Ditcher, said: “The loss of his teeth was treated as a bit of a joke but without them he struggled to eat and make himself understood in a strange environment.
“He was on a soft food diet and the weight just began dropping off him.”
The hospital agreed to reimburse the cost of replacement dentures.
But before they could be made, Mr Flynn was discharged to a nursing home. He died a short time later of septicaemia.
A plasterer and a merchant navyman by profession, Mr Flynn served in Germany in 1945 with the Royal West Kents rounding up the Nazi’s concentration camp guards.
He lost his leg 15 years ago after getting a deep vein thrombosis on a family holiday.
Mr Ditcher, 70, said: “I accept that there was little the hospital could do for his health, but his care was disgusting.”
"The loss of his teeth was treated as a bit of a joke but without them he struggled to eat and make himself understood in a strange environment..." - Mr Ditcher
But he praised the actions of an agency nurse who realised she had lost Mr Flynn’s glasses.
“She personally traced them to the laundry at Park Wood and we got them back,” he said.
Mr Ditcher, of Braddick Close, Loose, sent two complaints.
On hand delivering the second, he was told the first couldn’t be found so he took a copy to the chief executive’s office.
He added: “I’m a retired police officer, so I am used to procedures.
“The website says letters will be acknowledged and responded to – I’ve not had anything.”
A Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust spokesman said the hospital received a letter in March and responded “to Mr Ditcher in person, via the appropriate ward manager”.
She said the Patient Advice and Liaison Service was also contacted and staff spoke with Mr Flynn’s family.
“We are very sorry for any upset caused by the items going missing and the care concerns now raised,” she added.
Around 8,000 items went missing from hospitals in Britain between 2012-2014, a Freedom of Information campaign showed.
But the difficulty for hospitals is identifying what has been stolen or misplaced.
In some cases items may have been taken by dementia patients, not realising what they are doing.
Campaign group Patient Concern says its most common complaint is about belongings going missing.
Co-director Joyce Robins said: “The attitude to patients’ property is far too lax in hospitals.
“Some have solved the problem by the simple provision of a small box or pot – clearly marked and kept on each bedside locker.
“A little forward-thinking can save a lot of misery.”
Mr Ditcher has also informed the Care Quality Commission about his uncle’s experience.
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