Decision report 201003839

Summary
Mr C complained that his mother, Mrs A, had received inadequate care and treatment during two accident and emergency admissions and discharges to a hospital that served a rural area. Mr C was also dissatisfied with the facilities in the wards, staff communication and attitude. Mr C also stated that an out-of-hours doctor wrongly diagnosed Mrs A's medical condition.

Our investigations concluded that Mrs A received proper care and treatment from clinical staff at the hospital. We also concluded that the out-of-hours doctor had not wrongly diagnosed Mrs A's condition. We also found that the board had responded reasonably to Mr C’s complaints.

We did not uphold any of the complaints. However, we did make two recommendations, one about about Mr C's participating in a significant events analysis and one about record-keeping. We noted that before Mr C brought this complaint to us the board had apologised to Mr C for the issues he had raised with them on his mother's behalf.

Recommendations
We recommended that the board:
• ensure that the GP reflects on his procedure regarding the assessment of elderly patients and arranges a Significant Events Analysis (SEA) for this issue; and
• ensure that the GP's written records comply with NHS record-keeping guidelines.