Ms A complained that a Surgery failed to correctly address her transgender son on its calling board, disclosing his identity to other patients. Ms A also said the Surgery informed her son that he needed a new NHS number to change his gender on the system, and she was concerned how this would impact him being called for routine ‘female’ screening. Ms A was unhappy with the Surgery’s complaint handling. She also said that it did not respond to her emails and she had to contact the Local Health Board. A resolution meeting proved unsuccessful and Ms A’s family was removed from the Surgery’s patient list, without explanation or warning.
The Ombudsman decided that the Surgery had mishandled how it addressed Ms A’s son, and the family’s subsequent complaints. She decided to settle the complaint without investigation.
The Ombudsman sought and gained the Surgery’s agreement to apologise to Ms A for the complaint handling, and to provide a complaint response and rationale for the decision to remove the family from its patient list. It also agreed to review its current system for dealing with patient emails within one month.