The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about domiciliary care. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
The complaint
Mrs X complains about the care her mother, Mrs Y, received in the last weeks of her life. She says the care was obstructive and unkind. This has caused Mrs X distress and Mrs Y suffered unnecessarily. She wants an apology and compensation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X complained about the care provided in her mother’s home by a domiciliary care provider, commissioned by the Council. She complained the care provider could not provide carers at short notice when her mother, Mrs Y, needed to be transferred into and out of an ambulance as the paramedics could not do this. While this may have caused inconvenience, there is insufficient evidence this was because of fault.
Mrs X complained about a lack of personal care and says the care provider put Mrs Y in incontinence pads while her previous care provider had instead assisted her to the toilet. The care plan held by this provider included helping Mrs Y to use the toilet and to wear pads, and the care records show it did both. The care records do not indicate Mrs Y’s personal care was lacking. The Care Provider says there were some occasions when Mrs Y refused personal care, and I have seen some limited evidence of this in the care records for this ten-day period.
Mrs X’s complaint was also about carers’ attitudes, and she says a carer did not treat Mrs Y with privacy, dignity and care for her wellbeing, being obstructive and uncompassionate. There is no substantive evidence in the care records to support this. However, in any event, attitudes are subjective and I do not believe there would be sufficient evidence of this if we investigated the complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman