Decision Report 201607450

Summary

Ms C, who is an advocacy and support worker, complained on behalf of her client (Mr A) regarding the care and treatment he received at the medical practice. In particular, she complained that the practice did not do more to assist Mr A in obtaining a clear diagnosis and appropriate treatment for his mental health difficulties. This included concerns that Mr A's repeated requests for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) were not actioned.

We took independent medical advice from a GP, who considered that the practice arranged appropriate referrals for Mr A to mental health services. They noted that the specialists involved in these clinics had shown reluctance to give a specific diagnosis. They observed from one of the clinic letters that a psychiatrist had suggested a CBT approach and, while this did not appear to have progressed, they said it was not the role of a GP to follow up treatment plans arranged by a separate specialty. The adviser concluded that the care provided to Mr A by the practice was reasonable. We accepted this advice and did not uphold this aspect of complaint.

As Mr A had moved to a new GP practice, the practice were only able to access his electronic records and not any older paper records. Ms C also raised concerns that the complaint was not fully investigated as all medical records were not accessed. The practice considered that they had enough information to respond to the complaint and the adviser agreed that sufficient records were accessible to enable a response to the concerns and queries raised. We concluded that the practice's investigation was reasonable and proportionate to the issues raised and we did not uphold this aspect of the complaint. We noted that the practice had failed to provide details of our office in their complaint response, but they acknowledged this and we were satisfied that this had since been appropriately addressed through the revision of their complaints handling procedure.