Decision Report 201911093

Summary

C complained that the Scottish Ambulance Service made the decision that their headache was due to a less serious cause (rather than the serious diagnosis that was later identified), which did not require urgent assessment at A&E. C was also concerned that they were taken to the out-of-hours GP rather than to A&E.

We found that the there was no evidence in the records that the ambulance crew made any decisions about the cause of C's headache. The records indicate that the crew considered the symptoms C was experiencing required hospital assessment.

The records also indicated that a handover was given to a nurse within A&E at the hospital and that the nurse was advised that C had a two day history of headaches. It appeared that the decision to transfer C to the out-of-hours service was made by staff within the A&E department, rather than by the ambulance crew.

We did not uphold C's complaint.