Decision Report 201402384

Summary

Ms C, an advice worker, complained on behalf of her client (Mrs A) who had concerns about her late husband (Mr A)'s, treatment at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Ms C complained to the board about numerous issues including a breakdown in communications from staff about Mr A's deterioration, and inadequate treatment. Ms C also said the board had not addressed all of Mrs A's concerns. The board, when considering Ms C's complaint, decided that there were grounds to conduct a significant clinical incident review (SCI) and on completion forwarded a copy of the report to Ms C.

We found that, while the board's decision to hold a SCI was an indication they had taken the complaint seriously, they failed to address all the concerns Ms C raised. They simply referred her to the SCI report and apologised for other failings, but did not specify what they would do to prevent this happening again. We also had concerns about the time taken to provide a final response to the complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• apologise to Mrs A for the failings in communication which we have identified; and
• revisit this complaint and issue a further response which specifically addresses the issues raised with appropriate explanations, and provide information about actions which will be taken to prevent a similar occurrence happening again.