Miss P complained about the circumstances around her referrals for treatment for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (“EMDR” – a comprehensive psychotherapy that helps a patient process and recover from past experiences that are affecting their mental health and wellbeing) in May and September 2019, and questioned whether she was refused treatment. She also complained about the handling of her complaint, in particular, whether there was a conflict of interest with the investigating officer. Miss P also complained about the timeliness of the Health Board’s complaint response and its lack of communication with her regarding its redress process.
The Ombudsman found that the Health Board had no record of Miss P’s first EMDR referral, any discussions about the referral, or the outcome being communicated to Miss P. This was maladministration and the Ombudsman upheld this part of the complaint.
The Ombudsman found that whilst the Health Board responded to Miss P’s complaint within a reasonable amount of time, and that there was no conflict of interest, it took far too long to consider whether Miss P required redress and she was not updated in line with complaint handling guidelines. This was also maladministration and the Ombudsman upheld this part of the complaint.
The Ombudsman recommended that the Health Board apologise to Miss P, pay her a small amount of financial redress and carry out some further actions to ensure the same failures do not occur again. The Health Board agreed to the recommendations.