Mr B complained that the Health Board had not responded to all the questions that he had raised with the GP Practice. He also was unhappy with the Health Board’s handling of his complaint, including the time taken to provide a response. He referred to the effect this had on him.
The Ombudsman was critical of the Health Board’s complaint handling and its complaint response. The Ombudsman noted that the Health Board had not properly taken into account its freedom of information (FOI) duties. It had also not considered the need for reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, given that Mr B had informed the Health Board that he had autism and dyslexia and what this meant in terms of his needs. Given the stress that the Health Board’s poor complaint handling had caused Mr B, the Ombudsman was satisfied that this had caused Mr B an injustice.
The Health Board agreed to apologise to Mr B for the failings identified, and pay Mr B financial redress payment of £250 for the inconvenience and time and trouble caused to him by the Health Board’s complaint handling failings. It also agreed to look at lessons to be learnt from Mr B’s case around FOI and reasonable adjustments, and to take other measures including appropriate FOI training and improved documentation around reasonable adjustments.