Ambulance Services : Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust

Mr B complained about the treatment that his wife, Mrs B, received from the Trust after she suffered severe injuries in August 2020, specifically, the use of morphine to treat Mrs B, her transport from the boat she was on to an ambulance, and the accuracy of the complaint response.

The investigation found that the use of morphine and the method of transport to the ambulance were appropriate in the circumstances, and these complaints were therefore not upheld. It found that as Mr B’s and the Trust’s accounts of the incident differed significantly, there were several elements that it would never be able to establish definitively. However there were some elements where the Trust’s complaint response was established to be incorrect, or where relevant documentation had not been completed in sufficient detail, resulting in a lack of clarification about some elements of Mrs B’s treatment. This element of the complaint was therefore partly upheld.

The Ombudsman recommended that the Trust should apologise to Mr B for the failures identified in the report, offer Mr B a payment of £250 in recognition of the distress caused by the errors involved in complaint handling, and remind all staff of the importance of completing all relevant fields on supporting documentation. The Trust agreed to these recommendations.