Health Service Commissioner : first report for session 1981-82 : selected investigations completed April-September 1981 / Health Service Commissioner.

  • Great Britain. Health Service Commissioner.
Date:
[1981]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Health Service Commissioner : first report for session 1981-82 : selected investigations completed April-September 1981 / Health Service Commissioner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of any particular splint.’ The consultant confirmed this to my officer and added that splints were not immediately available because it was necessary to measure the individual child for one when he came out of plaster and also that there were occasions when it was found that splints were not necessary; it would therefore be wasteful to produce splints in advance. Findings 21. I am satisfied that the mother was given the help the staff thought she needed and that supplementary advice was readily available should she have asked for it. The advice given by the sister to the mother about her son’s care in the interim period between the removal of his plaster cast and the provision of the splint was given in good faith and in his interests although she admits that she may have exaggerated the need for care. She took prompt action to relieve the mother’s anxiety. I do not uphold these complaints. (f) The failure of the AHA to deal adequately with the complaint 22. The mother’s letter to the hospital made the complaints I have sum- marised in sub-paragraphs I(a) and 1(b) and said ‘If the operation does prove unsuccessful my husband and I intend to take this matter further, as everything was all right until the plaster cast was removed’. After the mother attended the clinic at the hospital on 9 November when the consultant spoke to her about her letter of complaint (see paragraph 7), the father wrote asking for a meeting with the SA and the consultant to discuss the complaints. He said that his wife had tried to discuss them at the clinic but that the consultant had been rude, his general manner intimidatory and that he seemed more concerned with his professional competence being questioned than with the natural concern of the complaints for the health and wellbeing of their son. They also sent a copy of this letter to the Area Medical Officer (the AMO) enclosing copies of their correspondence on the complaint. The AMO told them in his reply that he would ‘keep a personal eye on this enquiry, especially as part of your complaint is against [the consultant]. Medical matters such as this are, of course, my responsi- bility’. 23. The complainants said that the reply from the SA to their complaint had consisted of a letter from the consultant which refuted their complaints. They had been frightened by it because it referred to the possibility of taking legal action against them for what they had said. They had got in touch with their local Community Health Council (the CHC) who had helped with arrangements for the transfer of their son to the care of another consultant and had also arranged for them to see the AMO. Although, they said, they thought the AMO did his best to help them they were unable to obtain satisfactory answers to their complaints because the consultant was not present. 24. The SA, who has since left the hospital, said that on receipt of the com- plaint he had followed his usual procedure and asked the consultant for his comments. The consultant sent the SA a report (of which he sent a copy to the AMO) and asked the SA to ensure that it was sent unaltered to the complain- ants. The consultant added that he did not consider a meeting would have any useful result as he had nothing to add to his report. The SA expressed his doubts about the consultant’s proposals to the area general administrator (the AGA)
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