Health Service Commissioner : second report for session 1977-78 : investigations completed December 1977-March 1978.

  • Great Britain. Health Service Commissioner.
Date:
1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Health Service Commissioner : second report for session 1977-78 : investigations completed December 1977-March 1978. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    60/184 (page 58)
    suggests that the Area Authority made genuine efforts to give the complainant the reassurance he sought. I can, however, understand his dissatisfaction with the response he received from the Regional Authority. The initial reply contained an unjustified implication that he had refused several invitations to meet the consultant and he should have received an apology for this. He was probably not aware that the Regional Authority haveno direct responsibility for the actions of the Area Authority in dealing with complaints, and an explanation of the limitations of their powers would perhaps have modified his sense of grievance at having his questions referred back to the Area Authority, whose answers he had already deemed unsatisfactory. The subsequent delays in arranging the meeting, do not, in my view, reflect on either Authority in so far as they arose from attempts to meet the conditions the complainant had sought to impose. Conclusions 19. I have given my findings in relation to the specific complaints. In general I have not been able to uphold them, though I have commented on the manner in which consent is obtained for operations, which I consider to be unsatisfactory. I am glad to learn that instructions have been given to ensure that explanations are given only by medical staff. I think that the meeting with the consultant could have taken place earlier, and that the Regional Authority could have been more forthcoming, but that on the whole the Area Authority made reasonable efforts to answer the complainant’s questions. I hope that he will now be able to accept the assurances he has been given. Case No W456/76—77—Loss of patient’s property Complaint and background 1. The complainant’s husband suffers from a mental illness and has been an informal patient at a hospital on a number of occasions. On 19 February 1976 he was admitted to ward a of the hospital and on 6 April he was transferred to ward b. On 20 May, whilst he was at home on leave, he was informed of his discharge. The following day, when he returned to the hospital to collect his belongings, he found that a suitcase was missing and, on his return home, he found that other belongings had not been returned to him. 2. The complainant claims that the hospital did not take proper precautions to safeguard her husband’s belongings and that when the losses were brought to their notice they did not take adequate steps to recover them. Investigation 3. In her letter to me, and in discussion with my officer, the complainant said that when her husband went to the hospital on 21 May 1976 to collect his property he found that a suitcase which was marked with his name and which was kept in a locked store on the ward was missing, and the personal belongings which he had left locked in his bedside locker while he was at home on leave had been removed and put in a plastic bag. She said that when he returned home he found that several items were missing. 4. The complainant’s husband told my officer that he had drawn the attention of a nurse to the missing suitcase when he collected his belongings and, on his return home, he had written to the unit administrator at the hospital listing