Ms Y complained that the Health Board failed to investigate her complaint about her mother’s care between January and December 2019.
Despite receiving assistance from an advocate to submit a complaint on Ms Y’s behalf when she was unable to obtain a response to the complaints she had already submitted, the Health Board advised Ms Y that it was unable to provide a response as she was not the next of kin. In response to enquiries from the Ombudsman’s office, the Health Board sought legal advice and confirmed that it would now investigate Ms Y’s complaint as submitted by the Advocate. It also agreed to apologise to Ms Y for the time taken to deal with her complaint and agreed to offer her financial redress in recognition of this.
The Ombudsman was satisfied that it was appropriate to pursue an alternative resolution to Ms Y’s complaint based on the action the Health Board agreed to take which was reasonable and would resolve Ms Y’s complaint.