Mr E complained about Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s decision, in February 2020, to not fit him with a permanent pacemaker. Mr E said that he was subsequently fitted, some weeks later, with a pacemaker following heart complications while holidaying abroad.
The Ombudsman found that following a detailed account of Mr E’s symptoms by his GP, and an assessment by a consultant cardiologist which included a Holter monitor test (a portable electrocardiogram that records the electrical activity of the heart continuously over 24 hours), Mr E’s symptoms, which showed bradycardia (slow heart rhythm), were not severe enough and therefore there was no requirement for him to be fitted with a pacemaker.
The Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint.