‘Sorry’ and £250 forcancelled care man

Last year the Northern Ireland Ombudsman received over 30 written complaints from patients about the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) and told the health authority to apologise and pay compensation in a number of instances.

Complaints were also received concerning Derry City Council, the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) and Apex Housing.

According to the newly-published annual report of the Assembly Ombudsman for 2011/12 the Western Trust suspended the ‘unacceptable’ patient’s Domiciliary Care Service in March 2008, in accordance with the Trust’s Zero Tolerance Policy.

The report says carers reported the complainant’s behaviour towards them.

“As part of the review of the complainant’s service suspension, a reassessment of his needs was carried out in April 2008 by a senior social worker and a social work assistant.

“This reassessment determined that the complainant no longer met the criteria for ongoing Home Help provision. The complainant requested a review of this decision, which also upheld the original assessment,” the report states.

After the patient’s review was rejected he complained to the Ombudsman about the initial decision to remove his domiciliary care, and about the two reassessments of his needs.

“My investigation found that, although the Trust was correct in initially suspending Domiciliary Care due to the complainant’s unacceptable language and behaviour towards his carer, it could have managed this suspension more appropriately, and it did have continuing responsibility for supporting the complainant during the period his services were suspended.

“Regarding the reassessments, my investigation found that although the complainant did not appear to meet the Domiciliary Access Criteria which were operational at the time, the Trust should have conducted more thorough assessments of his needs and recorded these appropriately.

“I concluded that these failings constituted maladministration and I have recommended that the Trust writes to the complainant to apologise for these shortcomings I have identified, and that it should carry out a further assessment of his current needs,” the report states.

The Trust was told to pay the man £250 in respect of the “distress which these events have caused him.”

Across Northern Ireland a total of 208 complaints were received during 2011/12, 22 more than in 2010/11, concerning the health service.

The Western Trust was told to apologise to two other separate complainants and pay them £500 each.

One complaint concerned clinical treatment and care, the other complaint concerned handling and administration.

In total 31 written complaints were received concerning health care in the Western Trust last year; eight were brought forward from 2010/11; 17 had cleared to the validation stage; 11 had cleared to the investigation stage; three complaints were upheld; two reports were issued where the complaints were not upheld; and six cases were ongoing at the end of March 2012.

The Trust also received six complaints that were not related to health care.

Three separate written apologies were ordered to people who had complained about policy and procedure to the Western Trust.

Payments of £200 and review of process was also ordered in each case.

But the Western Trust was not the only organisation subject to public complaint in the Londonderry area.

A total of 189 complaints were received across Northern Ireland during 2011/12, 53 less than in 2010/11, and some of these concerned Londonderry organisations.

Derry City Council, for instance, received six written complaints last year and in one case were told to apologise concerning policy and procedure and pay a complainant £400.

Four written complaints were also received concerning the WELB and one complaint about Apex Housing has cleared to validation stage.