Decision report 201201868

Summary

Miss C raised a concern about the treatment she received from a hospital dermatology department (a department dealing with skin conditions and problems). In particular, she said that there was an unreasonable delay in diagnosing her condition and in progressing treatment.

After taking independent advice from one of our medical advisers, a senior consultant dermatologist, we did not uphold her complaint about diagnosis. We recognised that this was a difficult and stressful time for Miss C, but we found no evidence that the treatment was not of a reasonable standard in the face of what had been an unusual problem. We did, however, uphold her complaint that there was a delay in progressing treatment. Before we investigated, the board had accepted that Miss C's referral to the plastic surgery team had, in error, not been marked as urgent. As a result, it had been treated as a routine referral and this had resulted in a delay before Miss C was seen by the team. As, however, the board had already recognised this and apologised to Miss C, we did not make a recommendation about this.