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]

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

30/218 page 28

$ment. My only concern in the care of any child under my supervision is to do the best for that child and [——] is no exception, but to do this efficiently I must have the trust of the parents. I am indeed very happy to continue to look after the boy; indeed, I did see him clinically with his mother at [the hospital] today. I have made my position quite clear to the mother. In due course, I await their further instructions.’ The consultant told my officer that he thought he had acted quite correctly in the circumstance. Findings 28. The complaint was directed primarily at the consultant and the SA acted correctly in obtaining his comments. I note that the consultant and the then chairman both felt that legal action might ensue but I consider that the decision to send a copy of the consultant’s report under cover of a totally inadequate accompanying letter was ill-judged. Had the complaint related solely to clinical matters a suitable letter from the consultant might have been appropriate but the complaint included aspects involving nursing care and about the consultant’s attitude; these matters were not investigated by the AHA nor touched upon in the reply. I uphold this complaint. Conclusion 29. I have seen that the consultant devoted much of his great skill and valuable time to attending personally to the complainants’ son. Yet I have found that there was a failure in communication between him and the complainants. And I have criticised the AHA’s handling of their complaint. The AHA have asked me to convey, in this report, their apology to the complainants and I gladly do so. Case No. W.86/79-80 — Failure to provide hospital bed following attendance at Accident and Emergency Department Background and complaint 1. The complainant’s 88-year-old father was taken by ambulance to the Accident and Emergency Department (the A and E Department) of a hospital (the hospital) on 19 December 1978 after a fall in his landlady’s home. After treatment for a fractured clavicle and a head injury, the complainant’s father was sent home. The following day he was seen by his family practitioner (the FP), who arranged for him to be taken by ambulance to the hospital again, but he was not admitted. The complainant was obliged to make arrangements for his father’s admission two days later to a private hospital. 2. The complainant alleged that: (a) on 19 December there was no transport available for a considerable time to take his father home after he was treated; (6) the family could get no help from the hospital when they found they could not move their father to his bed that evening; (c) on 20 December his father was given no help with dressing after the doctor had examined him and he had to wait for two or three hours for the ambulance wearing only a vest and rubber pants;$