Decision Report 201407111

Summary

Mr C complained that the prison health centre unreasonably failed to prescribe him with appropriate pain medication. We reviewed his clinical records and we took independent advice from a GP adviser. The information available confirmed that Mr C was caught concealing his medication and because of that, the decision was taken to stop his pain medication. However, he was prescribed an alternative and referred to the pain clinic. The adviser said the decision to stop his pain medication was reasonable given that Mr C was caught concealing his medication. The adviser also confirmed that, in their view, Mr C had been prescribed an appropriate alternative medication for his pain.

Mr C also complained that there was an unreasonable delay in the health centre removing an item from his ear. In their response to his complaint, the board said they checked Mr C's records and they could not see anything about him raising concerns about something being stuck in his ear. Following our review of Mr C's record, it appeared that the board's response was incorrect. We noted that a nurse had recorded in Mr C's clinical record that he had approached her about having something stuck in his ear. The nurse also recorded that she successfully removed the item the same day as Mr C reported it to her by flushing his ear. In light of this information, we did not uphold Mr C's complaint, but we did make a recommendation relating to the way the board responded to his complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• apologise to Mr C for failing to respond appropriately to his complaint.