Mrs A complained about the care that she received from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s mental health services. Specifically, Mrs A complained that the Health Board failed to recognise and correctly diagnose her symptoms, and that there was an unreasonable delay in starting appropriate treatment. Mrs A also raised concerns about the contents of two conversations that she had with clinicians involved in her care.
The Ombudsman concluded that the diagnoses made by the Health Board were reasonable ones to make at the time. Based on a consideration of the available evidence, the Ombudsman was also unable to conclude that the two conversations in question had been unreasonable. As a result, the Ombudsman did not uphold these aspects of Mrs A’s complaints.
However, although the Ombudsman did not consider that there was any evidence of failings by the Health Board in terms of the events that led up to a decision to stop Mrs A’s sessions, the Ombudsman noted that there were shortcomings in how the decision to change psychologists was handled and that poor communication on the part of the Health Board contributed to the delay in Mrs A resuming therapy. Therefore, this aspect of the complaint was upheld to that extent.
The Ombudsman recommended that, within 1 month, the Health Board should apologise to Mrs A for the shortcomings in communication that were identified in the investigation.