A health board has been ordered to apologise to a woman who found her husband dead at home despite leaving him in the care of a nurse.

The woman, named only as Mrs C, arrived home to discover her husband, Mr A, had died and was lying in an "inappropriate position".

She had gone out that morning believing a district nurse was providing end-of-life care to her husband in her absence.

She complained to the health board shortly afterwards and said she believed the nurse had left her husband alone while he was dying or shortly after he had died.

The health board, which has not been identified, launched an internal probe which found the nurse's version of events to be "confused and contradictory" and recommended she faces a disciplinary hearing.

His family complained about the health board's response, sparking a further investigation by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

An advocate for Mrs C said the complaint to the ombudsman came after an "extended and unexplained delay" in the health board investigation.

The ombudsman found that the nurse has breached professional guidelines on record-keeping and that the care provided had "fallen below an acceptable standard".

Although it was not possible for the ombudsman to determine exactly what happened, it found that it was likely the nurse performed some form of treatment on the patient.

The ombudsman said "the weight of the evidence pointed to Mr A being left in an inappropriate condition by the nurse", however, there was no suggestion this had contributed to his death.

It found that the board had failed to properly investigate the complaint by omitting to interview family members and had failed to give them an adequate explanation.

The ombudsman ruled the nurse's actions fell "below acceptable professional standards" and that the care provided to Mr A was "unreasonable".

Among other recommendations, the ombudsman ordered the board to apologise unreservedly for its failings.