Mr A complained on behalf of his mother, Mrs A, that there had been significant delays in the Health Board’s consideration of his mother’s complaint under the NHS Putting Things Right redress process.
Mrs A first complained to the Health Board in July 2020. In August 2021 the Health Board acknowledged that there was a breach of duty and that a qualifying liability may exist. The Health Board sent an offer letter to Mrs A’s solicitors in November 2023. The Ombudsman was concerned about the time the Health Board had taken to consider the matter and that this had caused an injustice to Mrs A as she had to wait a significant amount of time for an outcome.
After being contacted by the Ombudsman, the Health Board agreed to, within one month, provide Mr and Mrs A with a full written explanation for why it had taken so long to deal with the complaint and a full apology for the delays which had occurred. The Health Board also agreed to provide a response to their questions raised following the issue of the November 2023 offer letter, if that had not already been done and to consider, as part of the offer and settlement of their redress case, whether it would be appropriate to include an element of financial redress, to reflect how long the process had taken. The Ombudsman considered that this was a satisfactory resolution of the complaint.