Decision Report 201404112

Summary

Mr C had some of his medications reduced and stopped soon after entering prison (although he was still on one medication). He was then transferred to a different prison, where he raised concerns about his medication and asked to be put back on his original medication. The board arranged for Mr C to see his psychiatrist from the community (who had prescribed his initial medication). The psychiatrist increased Mr C's current medication, but did not return him to his previous medications. Mr C complained about the board's failure to return him to his previous medication, and their handling of his complaint.

After taking independent advice from an experienced psychiatrist, we did not uphold Mr C's complaint about medication. We found there was no clinical reason to restart Mr C's previous medications, particularly as several of these medications are addictive and not for long-term use. We also noted that Mr C's psychiatrist from the community had reviewed his medication and agreed with this.

In relation to the board's complaints handling, we found the board had taken appropriate action in response to Mr C's complaints by arranging review by his psychiatrist from the community. However, on two occasions the board did not respond to Mr C's complaint to confirm what was happening and check that he was satisfied with this, as required by their complaints procedure. Therefore, we upheld this complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• apologise to Mr C for the failings our investigation found; and
• remind relevant staff of the need to acknowledge or respond to all complaints within a three working day timeframe.