Patient wins appeal over wrong diagnosis in discharge summary
Busselton Hospital in WA was cleared of negligence in 2019, but is headed back to court after the patient successfully appealed
A patient has successfully appealed for a retrial into a WA hospital’s negligence over having the wrong diagnosis on their discharge summary.
Last week the state’s court of appeal overturned a District Court of WA ruling in 2019 that found WA Country Health Service was not negligent in the case into the discharge summary that wrongly stated the patient had a subluxed, rather than a dislocated, shoulder.
The patient had presented to Busselton Hospital near midnight in July 2009 after injuring his left shoulder in 2009 while roughhousing with friends following a night of drinking.
Once examined, the doctor placed him in a sling, gave him paracetamol and ibuprofen and advised he return the following day for an X-ray, which he did.
