Overview
The complainant (Mr C)’s brother (Mr A) collapsed suddenly on 1 January 2007 while at his mother’s home in Uig, Isle of Lewis. Mr A was taken to hospital by ambulance. Mr C raised a number of concerns: that a GP working for Western Isles NHS Board (the Board) out-of-hours service did not attend, although the Scottish Ambulance Service (the Service) requested he do so; a First Responders Unit (FRU) was not correctly called; and information was released to the press, relating to this incident, inappropriately. The Service accepted the problem with the FRU but Mr C remained concerned about the actions taken to remedy this.
Specific complaints and conclusions
The complaints which have been investigated are that:
- (a) a GP working for the Board unreasonably did not attend (partially upheld, to the extent that there were clear issues with communication on the night of 1 January 2007);
- (b) a FRU was not correctly called and actions taken to remedy this were insufficient (not upheld); and
- (c) information was released to the press inappropriately (upheld).
Redress and recommendations
The Ombudsman recommends that:
- (i) the Board review the equipment provided to out-of-hours GPs, in the light of the problems identified in this report;
- (ii) the Board and the Service meet to consider how best to respond to the communication failures identified and ensure that lines of responsibility and procedures are clearly in place where appropriate;
- (iii) the Service undertake a short review of emergency calls in FRU areas, to see if they can identify cases where FRUs could have been called but were not and consider if any lessons can be learned from this;
- (iv) the Service apologise to Mr C for the release of inaccurate information; and
- (v) the Board and the Service use this complaint as a case study with press staff, in order to encourage learning from the problems identified.
The Board and the Service have accepted the recommendations and will act on them accordingly.