Annual Report 2007-08 - the Parliamentary and Health Service ...

16Case StudyComplaint about cancertreatment was not properlyhandledIn 2000 Mrs S’s husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer andhad radical surgery. Although the surgery was performed privately,the majority of his pre- and post-operative care was provided bythe University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust (the Trust).Serious post-operative complications necessitated furtheroperations and a long stay in hospital. Mrs S considered that herhusband had been poorly advised about treatment options andshe complained to the Trust. An Independent Review Panel (thePanel) considered her complaint and made severalrecommendations, some of which related directly to the clinicalpractice of the Consultant Urologist responsible for Mr S’s care.Mrs S complained to the Ombudsman that the Trust had notdone more to resolve her complaint prior to the Panel, and hadfailed to inform her of the action it had taken, or planned to take,to implement the Panel’s recommendations.We upheld Mrs S’s complaint. She did not receive an adequateresponse to her complaint in a timely manner. The Trust did notoffer her a meeting to discuss her concerns, and failed to bring thelocal resolution phase of the NHS complaints procedure to an endto allow her to escalate her complaint. It also allowed all aspectsof Mrs S’s complaint to be investigated under the NHS complaintsprocedure, when it knew that some of her concerns about theConsultant’s practice needed to be reviewed through a differentprocess. The Trust failed to give Mrs S details of the action it hadtaken, or planned to take, to implement the Panel’srecommendations, or reassure her that it was taking appropriateaction to implement them. She was left feeling that she had noother recourse than to approach the Ombudsman and theGeneral Medical Council to resolve her complaint.The Trust agreed to apologise to Mrs S for the failings we hadidentified and to send her details of the action taken toimplement the Panel’s recommendations that did not relate to theConsultant’s personal practice. It also agreed to use the case as alearning opportunity to assist it when considering what parts ofa complaint should be investigated under the NHS complaintsprocedure, and to make a payment to Mrs S of £500 in recognitionof the worry and distress its poor complaint handling had caused.38