Clinical treatment outside hospital; GP : Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Mr A complained on behalf of his wife, Mrs A, about the care and treatment she received from a GP Surgery (“the Surgery”) which is managed by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (“the Health Board”). Mr A said that the Surgery failed to respond appropriately when Mrs A became increasingly unwell, which culminated in an emergency admission to hospital. Mr A said that the Surgery also reduced Mrs A’s medication dose in error from what was prescribed in her discharge notes from the hospital. Finally, Mr A also complained about the Health Board’s handling of his complaint which included poor communication and delay in providing a complaint response.
The investigation found that the care provided to Mrs A by the Surgery was reasonable and appropriate. Whilst there did appear to have been an error in the Surgery reducing Mrs A’s medication dose, there was no evidence to suggest that it affected Mrs A’s ongoing management or her condition. The Ombudsman did not uphold these complaints. However, the investigation did find that the Health Board unreasonably delayed in responding to Mr A’s complaint and this aspect of Mr A’s complaint was upheld. The Ombudsman recommended that the Health Board apologise to both Mr and Mrs A and pay a sum of £250 for the time and trouble they had experienced in pursuing this complaint. Finally, the Health Board was asked to review its complaint handling procedure and take practical action to ensure that, where a complaint investigation will exceed the timescales set out in the Guidance and Regulations complainants are kept up to date with a meaningful explanation of the reasons for any delay.