BackThe Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's latest snapshot of cases it has investigated includes cases about grieving parents and partners not being given answers as to why their loved ones died and mistakes not being admitted, which means that much needed service improvements are being delayed. The latest snapshot of cases published today details how one family was forced to bring their complaint to the Ombudsman service, after their nine-year-old son died of sepsis after he was wrongly discharged from hospital.
Our investigation found that his death could have been avoided if he received the right care and treatment. Following our investigation, the trust provided the parents with an open and honest acknowledgement of the failings, apologised and paid them £15,000 recognising that the death of their son was avoidable.
The report contains a snapshot of 40 case summaries of the 544 investigations of unresolved complaints the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman completed investigating in April, May and June 2015. Approximately 80% of the cases investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman are about the NHS and the rest are about UK government departments and other organisations.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigates approximately 4,000 complaints a year and upholds around 37%. When it upholds complaints it makes recommendations for the organisation to put things right if they have not done so already.
Case summaries are published on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's website, and can be searched by entering key words such as cancer, diagnosis and death, as well as by organisation, for example the name of a hospital trust and by location.
For more information contact Steven Mather on 0300 061 4324 or email steven.mather@ombudsman.org.uk or Marina Soteriou on 0300 061 4996 or email marina.soteriou@ombudsman.org.uk
Source: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
