Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Lothian NHS Board

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201104194 Sector Health Category policy/administration Decided 01 August 2012

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Full decision

Summary

Mr C is a patient in a mental health facility. He complained that in documentation the board stated as fact information which had not been investigated or confirmed. He also said they had not sent reasonable responses to his letters of complaint.

Our investigation found that information had been incorrectly presented as fact, although it had not been clearly established what happened. A police investigation into the matter could not be progressed as a key witness refused to cooperate. We upheld this complaint and made a recommendation to address this.

Mr C was also unhappy with the response that the board gave to his complaint. However, we found that it was clear that the responses had fully explained the reasoning and the fact that the police investigation had stalled. We did not uphold this complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board: apologise to Mr C for their actions in this matter and update, correctly, the information held on their care plan.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201104194 as a PDF (21.57 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

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