Ms A complained about the Health Board’s delay in hip surgery for her father, Mr B. Mr B was told that his care had been transferred to a neighbouring health board. However, enquiries revealed he was not on the surgery waiting list at either health board. The investigation considered whether Mr B’s hip surgery had been delayed due to administrative, rather than clinical, reasons.
The Ombudsman found that, without his knowledge, Mr B had been removed from the orthopaedic surgery waiting list. The reason for this is not clear from the Health Board’s records. The Ombudsman was concerned that Mr B had not been notified about his removal from the list (as required by national guidance), and that the Health Board had failed to rectify the situation for well over a year despite complaints being made to it. The Ombudsman was satisfied that this constituted maladministration which had resulted in a considerably longer wait for surgery for Mr B. The Ombudsman upheld the complaint.
The Ombudsman made a number of recommendations which the Health Board accepted.
Within 1 month
a) Arrange for the Chief Executive to make a written apology to Ms A and Mr B for the administrative error which delayed Mr B’s surgery, and for the poor and delayed response to their complaint.
b) Provide a redress payment of £750 to reflect the poor response to the complaint, and the additional stress for Mr B of having to chase up the issue with the Health Board.
c) Provide a redress payment of £1,500 to reflect the additional pain and suffering experienced by Mr B during the 18 months he was not on the waiting list due to administrative error.
Within 4 months
d) Provide evidence to my office that it has audited its surgery waiting lists and the transferred patient lists to satisfy itself that there are no other surgery patients who have been similarly overlooked or wrongly removed from its lists.
e) Share this report with its Board which should nominate a Committee to maintain oversight and monitoring of the Health Board’s compliance with recommendation d).