Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Highland NHS Board

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Not Upheld Reference 202111438 Sector Health Category Clinical treatment / diagnosis Decided 01 December 2023

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Full decision

Summary

C complained about the care and treatment that they received from the board’s neurology department. C had been reporting symptoms to the board for several years before obtaining spinal surgery abroad. After surgery, C experienced improvement in their symptoms. C complained that the board did not reasonably investigate or offer treatment for their symptoms.

We took independent advice from a neurologist and neuroradiologist (a specialist in reading medical images of the spine). We found that the board had reasonably investigated C’s symptoms and offered reasonable treatment for C’s symptoms. We found that there was no missed opportunity to identify any physical problem in C’s spine that may have caused C’s symptoms, based on MR (magnetic resonance, a type of medical imaging) images of C’s spine. Therefore, we did not uphold C’s complaint.

Related reading

View Decision Report 202111438 as a PDF (24.17 KB) Updated: December 20, 2023

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