Mrs Q takes medication daily for a kidney disease and always carries the medication in her bag. While Mrs Q was an inpatient in Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust), a pharmacy technician asked her if she had brought her own medication with her. Mrs Q said ‘yes’, and the technician told her she was not supposed to have any drugs with her. Mrs Q said she had not realised this and handed over all her medication.

The next day, the same technician asked Mrs Q where her medication was. She replied that she did not know, having had no access to the drug cabinet by her bed. The technician then insisted that Mrs Q empty out her bag, in front of other patients and nurses. This embarrassed and upset Mrs Q.

Mrs Q complained that the technician had been disrespectful to her, as she had ‘belittled me and made me look like a thief’. She wanted the technician to apologise and felt the Trust had not handled her complaint well. She told us she had no idea what the Trust had done following her complaint and if they had disciplined the technician. This meant she had no reassurance that the member of staff involved would not cause similar problems in the future. She was left feeling that ‘complaining gets you nowhere’.

Following our intervention the Trust sent Mrs Q a more detailed response to her complaint and apologised for the technician’s behaviour. They also told her that they had taken disciplinary action against the technician. Mrs Q was very satisfied with this outcome.