Mrs A complained about the care and treatment provided to her mother Mrs D, by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (“the Health Board”) at Prince Charles Hospital (“the Hospital”). In particular Mrs A was concerned that the Health Board failed to provide appropriate and timely pain management to her mother during her hospital admission. She also considered that the Health Board prematurely took the decision to categorise Mrs D as in need of palliative care and did so without explaining this sufficiently to her family. Finally, Mrs A complained that the Health Board failed to appropriately investigate and treat Mrs D’s symptoms because her mother was categorised as needing palliative care.
The investigation found that the care and treatment provided to Mrs D during her admission to the Hospital in June 2021 was overall, reasonable and appropriate. The Ombudsman did not uphold the complaint. In particular, the Ombudsman found that it was appropriate for clinicians to refer Mrs D to the Palliative Care Team when they did. However, it was not clear whether an explanation was given to Mrs D’s family at the time of this referral. The Ombudsman found that is not uncommon for relatives not to be consulted before such a referral is made. The Ombudsman did not uphold this aspect of the complaint, but invited the Health Board to consider the way in which a patient’s family members are informed of a palliative care referral.