Decision Report 201604403

Summary

Mr C complained about the care and treatment provided to him at the diabetes clinic at the New Victoria Hospital. Mr C complained that when he was experiencing severe problems with his diabetes there were delays in him being given appointments, and that he was often given phone reviews instead of face-to-face appointments.

During our investigation we took independent advice from a diabetes nurse specialist. We found that Mr C had been reasonably assessed and offered appointments or phone reviews as appropriate. We found that over a period of six weeks he had eight phone reviews and two face-to-face appointments and we found that the advice and treatment given at each of these was reasonable. Therefore, we did not uphold these aspects of Mr C's complaint.

Mr C also complained about the phone service at the diabetes clinic. He said that often when he called he could not reach anybody to speak to and instead reached an answering service. We found that it was reasonable for the diabetes clinic to have an answering service as it was often the case that the nurses were unable to answer incoming calls as they were reviewing other patients. We did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint.