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Selected Investigations Completed October 1997 - March 1998 > Part I, Case no. E.1017/97-98
Matters considered: Misleading advice about the complaints procedure, dilatory and unsatisfactory handling, unsatisfactory explanation of the Authority’s investigation of the complaint
Complaint against: Lincolnshire Health Authority
Summary of case
Mr X complained in July 1996 that his mother-in-law’s GP failed to diagnose the seriousness of her condition on the day that she died. The Health Authority handled the complaint because Mr X did not wish to deal direct with the GP. The Authority arranged for Mr X to attend a meeting with a conciliator and an independent GP adviser. As a result of what he was told at that meeting, Mr X was led to believe that there was little point in pursuing his complaint through the NHS complaints procedure. Mr X told the Authority that he was dissatisfied with that. The Authority later advised Mr X that they had instigated disciplinary action against the GP. Later still they wrote again to tell Mr X that the matter had been concluded, but did not describe the outcome of their investigation.
Findings
The investigation found that the discussion between Mr X, the conciliator and the GP adviser went beyond what was appropriate at a conciliation meeting, and that as a result Mr X was misled about the scope for taking his complaint further. Mr X did not receive written notification of the results of the conciliation nor was he sent a written summary of the investigation at the end of the local resolution process. The concerns which he expressed at that point were not addressed. The Ombudsman is prevented by law from investigating complaints about the actions of health authorities taken in pursuit of the statutory disciplinary procedures so he could not reach any findings on the Autho*rity’s actions in that particular regard. However, he concluded that the letters sent to Mr X at the end of that process were wholly inadequate and that the Authority did not acknowledge their errors in the handling of the matter.
Remedy
The Health Authority apologised and agreed to produce appropriate guidance on the new complaints procedure for GP advisers; to review their arrangements for recording and subsequent monitoring of complaints and to ensure that all their staff were fully familiar with the requirements of the complaints procedure and its interface with disciplinary procedures.
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