Foreword
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I am laying before Parliament, under section 14 (4) of the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (as amended), this joint report of the investigation into a complaint made to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales and the Health Service Ombudsman for England about the Welsh Assembly Government (Health Commission Wales), Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust.
The complaint was made by Mrs S1 on behalf of her adult daughter, Miss S. Mrs S’s complaint is that the NHS should have funded Miss S’s care when Miss S, who lived in Wales, became ill whilst staying with a friend in England. Mrs S complained that she and her daughter had been forced to fund Miss S’s care privately as Miss S’s condition was serious and deteriorating and it appeared that the question of which NHS body was responsible for funding was unlikely to be resolved quickly. Our investigation found maladministration and service failure by Health Commission Wales, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust which resulted in unremedied injustice and hardship for Mrs S and Miss S. The report details the remedy we have recommended to the Welsh Assembly Government, Health Commission Wales, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust.
Our statutory powers have enabled us to investigate and report jointly, to consider maladministration and service failure, and any resulting injustice and hardship, in the round. We have been able to recommend remedy in the round. This report demonstrates how Ombudsmen working together can provide an independent, high quality and accessible complaints system when the complaint concerns the actions of a number of public bodies in more than one country. It also demonstrates how Ombudsmen’s investigations can right individual wrongs and drive improvements in public services.
Ann Abraham
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
7 July 2009
1 To protect the privacy of those involved, details that might indentify individuals have been omitted so far as that can be done without impairing the effectiveness of the report.
