Ms A complained that Powys Teaching Health Board (“the Health Board”) failed to address her concerns about its role as commissioner of health services provided to her by her GP Practice (“the Practice”) and an NHS Trust in England (“the Trust”). Specifically, she complained that following poor communication between the Practice and the Trust regarding her need for sedatives prior to an imaging scan, the first scan had to be cancelled at short notice. She said that as a result of the approach adopted by the Practice and the Trust, she was forced to make a 50-mile round trip to collect sedatives before the re-arranged scan.
The Ombudsman was concerned that the Health Board’s complaint response had not addressed key questions raised by Ms A, including whether it was satisfied that the policies of the Practice and the Trust regarding prescribing sedatives for patients in Ms A’s situation were reasonable.
In the interests of settling the complaint, the Health Board agreed to carry out a number of actions, within 8 weeks, including to issue a further complaint response to Ms A, apologise to her for the failure to fully respond to the complaint previously, and offer her a payment of £350 in respect of time and trouble.