Decision Report 202308058

Summary

C complained that the board failed to reasonably respond to their complaint about the way a form was completed by the GP at their GP Practice.

We found that while the board provided regular updates, apologised for the delay and reasonably managed C’s contact, the length of time responding to the complaint and the inaccuracies of the updates provided to C, were unreasonable. The response to the complaint was unclear and did not answer all of the points raised by C. As such, we upheld the complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to C for failures in this case. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets.

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Complaint responses are issued as soon as possible, with the response responding to the main points raised and agreed with the complainant, and any required updates accurately reflect the reasons for the delay.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.