Decision Report 201508820

Summary

Mrs C complained about a decision taken by the board to cancel her heart surgery and the lack of communication to her about this decision. She was also concerned that her complaint had not been dealt with appropriately because members of the complaints team had been involved with the decision to cancel her surgery.

We took independent advice from a consultant cardiologist. We found that there were appropriate reasons for the surgery to have been postponed until an independent review was sought to endorse Mrs C's management plan.

However, we found the communication in relation to the postponement of the surgery to be unreasonable. The board apologised to Mrs C that she was not informed beforehand that a further clinical meeting would be held. We also considered that the board should have sought Mrs C's input in relation to the independent review and informed her that there was a possibility it would delay her surgery.

We did not find that there had been a conflict of interest in the complaints staff handling of Mrs C's complaint about the cancellation of her surgery. The decision to cancel the surgery was taken by relevant clinical staff involved in her care. We therefore concluded that her complaint was investigated appropriately.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• draw our findings abut the failure to adequately communicate the decision to postpone the surgery to the attention of the multi-disciplinary team involved in Mrs C's care; and
• apologise for failing to seek Mrs C's input in relation to the decision to obtain an independent review.