Health : Swansea Bay University Health Board

Mrs X complained about the Health Board’s handling of her complaint about her mother’s fall at hospital and her clinical care. Although the Health Board was continuing to consider the care element under the PTR redress provisions, and had provided Mrs X with some information, she had heard nothing further. Mrs X was also concerned to learn that some of her mother’s nursing records were missing, and how this might impact on the investigation. She asked the Ombudsman to consider her concerns about this and the lack of update from the Health Board.

The Ombudsman was particularly concerned to learn about the missing records, given this had been highlighted as an issue across Wales through an earlier thematic report issued by the Ombudsman. She was also concerned at the lack of any update to Mrs X. Both lost records and lack of an update represented an injustice to Mrs X. As an alternative to investigating the complaint, the Ombudsman made recommendations which the Health Board agreed to implement.

The Health Board agreed to apologise to Mrs X for the lost records, offer her redress of £500 for the delayed answers and frustration this had caused, and provide an update on the redress investigation and information about its communication task force’s work that it had previously noted. All these actions would be within 1 month. The Health Board further agreed to continue to undertake a search for the missing records and to consider whether a referral should be made to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the lost data.
It also agreed to review and update its records management policies and processes to seek to avoid future loss, and to undertake that review within 3 months.