One of the nurses attending a man who died in Raigmore hospital, Inverness, after a skull fracture remained undetected told a fatal accident inquiry yesterday that when she went to begin her care she could find no notes at all to give her guidance.

Mrs Janet Watt, who was on duty in Ward 6A where Mr Robert Sutherland was being treated, told the inquiry: ''I was very concerned that I had a patient there and nothing to go on.''

Mrs Watt said she immediately began a search for records, at reception, in the doctor's room and was keen to find relatives, who actually arrived a few minutes later.

She began to create her own nursing documentation and finished filling it in before going off-duty that evening at 6pm, noting everything she had done for the patient since she had first seen him at 3.50pm.

Mrs Watt was therefore surprised to receive a telephone call later that night, December 6, 1996, from a staff nurse asking how the patient had been that afternoon.

''I was a bit bemused at the call and asked why?'' she told fiscal depute Ron Phillips.

''She said that Mr Logie (consultant surgeon) wanted to know. But she never said that she couldn't find my notes.''

Mrs Watt agreed it was about a week later that she found out her notes had gone missing. It was only then also that she discovered Mr Sutherland had been transferred to her ward from a short stay ward and that he had not come to her straight from accident and emergency as she had had to assume, given the lack of information when she first saw him on her ward.

The further evidence of confused record keeping and lost notes emerged on the fifth day of the inquiry into Mr Sutherland's death. The former oilyard worker was taken to Raigmore on December 5, 1996, after falling and cutting his head on a pavement. He was admitted for observation in case there was a more severe problem inside his head and also because the 33-year-old, who had a history of chronic alcohol abuse, seemed to be exhibiting symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Mr Sutherland died two days later from a cerebral haemorrhage brought on by the skull fracture.

The inquiry at Inverness Sheriff Court was ordered after relatives expressed concern at his treatment in the hospital.

Mrs Watt, who gave evidence for most of yesterday's hearing, also told of a doctor advising her she was going to give Mr Sutherland Diazepam because she thought he'd had another seizure. She went into Mr Sutherland's room of the ward a few minutes later to find the doctor sitting on the bed with a tray containing a syringe and some needles.

She assumed the doctor had administered the Diazepam then, although she did not actually see her do so. The time would have been around 4pm. But Mrs Watt told the fiscal there was no entry in the medical records of Mr Sutherland being given Diazepam until 5.45pm. She said she was certain the doctor could not have administered it at 5.45pm because she herself had the keys to the locked drugs cupboard at that time and the doctor had not asked for access.

Asked if she could give any explanation as to why it was entered in the notes that Mr Sutherland had been given the drug at 5.45pm, Mrs Watt said she could not. She said it could not have been even remotely near that time that the injection of Diazepam had been given.

The inquiry has been adjourned until June 2.