Decision report 201200863

Summary

Ms C complained that the board failed to involve her in the assessment of the care needs and the care plans for her father (Mr A). Mr A was in hospital, but the board considered that he would be better placed in a care home. Ms C was unhappy with this, as she considered that Mr A should not be discharged from hospital. We found that the board had tried to involve Ms C in the assessment of her father's care needs and care plans and that they acted reasonably in relation to this. We also found that that the assessment that had been completed was comprehensive. The board had arranged for an independent consultant to review Mr A's needs and we found that this was good practice and did not uphold this complaint.

We did, however, uphold Ms C's complaints about complaints handling and being given information. The independent consultant who reviewed the case said that Mr A could be discharged from hospital as long as suitable alternative care could be identified. The board then wrote to Ms C to say that they would start the process to find Mr A suitable residential care. We considered that when they wrote to Ms C about this they should have told her that she had a right of appeal, although we noted that they had informed her of this on an earlier occasion. We also found that the board had delayed in dealing with some of Ms C's complaints.