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October 13, 2024
A woman was left in “unrelenting pain” for 15 years because of NHS failings while parents were accused of child abuse for trying a herbal remedy for eczema, in cases highlighted by the NHS Ombudsman.
The body – the highest authority for complaints against the health service – has released details of some of the worst cases referred to it, detailing a catalogue of blunders.
The Ombudsman, said too often those who complained about their treatment suffered a “devastating impact” because the NHS failed to provide an honest explanation of what had gone wrong.
The report is a snapshot of 192 case summaries of the 1,075 investigations concluded by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in February or March this year, with most cases involving the NHS.
They detail cases in which a father died from blood poisoning, after doctors failed to treat it, a family was forced to pay £102,000 for care which should have been funded by the NHS and a woman who almost lost the use of her ankle thanks to poor NHS advice.
In one case, a woman who complained of “severe and unrelenting” facial pain in 1997 was repeatedly refused an MRI scan. When a scan was finally carried out by Isle of Wight NHS Trust in 2012, it identified the source of the pain, which was resolved by surgery.
The Ombudsman said the MRI should have been offered 12 years sooner, and secured an apology and payment of £750 compensation.
In another case, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust was forced to pay £500 in compensation to a couple a doctor told them that if they used a herbal cream on their son’s eczema instead of prescribed drugs, they would regard it as a “child protection issue”.
The ombudsman said there was “insufficient evidence” to justify treating the family’s preferences as a safeguarding matter.
The report tells how a female patient almost lost the use of her ankle, thanks to poor advice from the NHS about her fracture.
Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust told the woman to rest the joint for two months but the woman was sufficiently worried to seek a second opinion, privately.
The PHSO said the patient would have lost the use of her ankle permanently if she had followed the NHS advice, and the trust has reimbursed her the £323.50 paid for the private appointment.
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust sent a man suffering a painful lump on his buttock home with antibiotics but within three weeks was back with pain in his foot.
Doctors found the initial infection had spread and he died from blood poisoning two days later.
The trust claimed the admissions were unrelated but PHSO said the lack of appropriate treatment on the first visit compromised the man’s chance of survival, and ordered that £2,000 compensation be paid to his daughter.
At South Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), health officials were forced to pay a family £102,000 after trying to make them pay towards care home costs which the NHS should have funded.
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust was criticised over the death of a man who committed suicide shortly after being discharged from hospital, following an overdose.
The PHSO said the trust did not do enough to establish whether he was at risk of further self-harm.
Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: “In many of the complaints we see, the organisation complained about has done the right thing to put things right. But too many people aren’t getting the answers to what went wrong from the organisation they complained about.
“Complaints alert people to where problems are and should be welcomed by all levels of the organisation from the frontline to the board, so that much-needed improvements are made.”
Anna Bradley, chairman of Healthwatch England, said: “The Ombudsman’s findings are worrying but sadly not surprising. Our research shows that three in five people who complain about health and social care services feel their complaints are not properly addressed.”
Source The Telegraph