Decision report 201202180

Summary

Mr C complained about a range of issues related to his late wife’s (Mrs C) medical and nursing care and treatment while she was in hospital. Mrs C became terminally ill and died shortly afterwards, having been admitted to another hospital for palliative care.

Our investigation established that it would not be possible to prove the facts in relation to a number of Mr C's complaints because he and the board disputed what had happened, or what had been said, and Mrs C's clinical records did not cast any light on this. In cases where it is very unlikely that we would be able to establish enough facts to reach a robust conclusion, it is not our practice to look further into a complaint.

In respect of other parts of Mr C's complaint, we considered that the board's responses (which were given in two letters, at two meetings and through a number of phone conversations and emails) showed that their investigation had been reasonable and they had made significant efforts to give him a large volume of detailed information. They had taken his complaints seriously and took action to improve various areas of their practice, even where they had been unable to prove his allegations. Overall, however, we could not reach a finding on Mr C's complaint because of a lack of evidence.