Decision Report 201508509

Summary

Mrs C complained about the care and treatment she received from the board at University Hospital Crosshouse following her inner labial reduction surgery (reduction of the two flaps of skin on either side of the vaginal opening). Her concerns included that the board failed to provide her with a reasonable standard of care when she reported problems after the procedure and that the entire area of tissue from the inner labia had been removed during subsequent corrective surgery without reasonable discussion or explanation.

We obtained independent medical advice on the case from a consultant gynaecologist. They said that at the first sign of post-operative problems, Mrs C should have been seen as a matter of priority and the surgeon who carried out the operation should not have refused to see her. The adviser said that the surgeon suggesting that Mrs C's GP contact the plastic surgery service was not appropriate and caused further delay in Mrs C's treatment. We therefore upheld this part of the complaint. However, we noted that the adviser said that they did not feel that the outcome would have been materially different if the subsequent corrective surgery had taken place sooner. We also noted that the board had taken appropriate remedial action as a result of Mrs C's complaint.

In terms of the corrective surgery, the adviser said that almost the entire area of the inner labia was removed without consent or proper explanation. We therefore upheld this part of Mrs C's complaint. Although we noted that the board had taken reasonable remedial action in relation to their consent process, we made two recommendations.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• feed back our decision on Mrs C's complaint to the staff involved; and
• provide Mrs C with a written apology for the failings identified.