Nurse Maude patient suffers life-threatening complications after catheter goes unchanged for four months, medication not monitored

A patient suffered life-threatening complications after a home care service stopped monitoring his medication and left his catheter unchanged for four months. The family of the man said he had been living independently but required rest home level care for the remainder of his life after the failures by the company, Nurse Maude. The Health and Disability Commissioner today told Nurse Maude to apologise to the man’s family and make several changes to its internal systems.

In a report published this afternoon, the commission said the patient, called Mr A, was aged in his 70s, diabetic, and in an independent living unit at a care home. He started getting home-based care from Nurse Maude in 2018, which included visits to check his insulin management and change his catheter bag..