Decision Report 201507595

Summary

Mrs C complained that the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital provided her son (Mr A) with inadequate care and treatment. In particular, Mrs C felt that there was not a proper care plan in place and that specific treatment should have been provided. Mrs C also raised concerns that a specialist nurse did not understand Mr A's health problems and acted inappropriately in making a referral to the Reporter to the Children's Hearing (an authority set up to safeguard children).

We took independent advice on this case from a medical adviser and a nursing adviser. We found evidence that the care provided by the hospital was appropriate. In particular, there was good interdepartmental communication between relevant specialities within the hospital and Mr A was reviewed regularly. A second specialist opinion was also appropriately requested from another hospital in England and followed up by the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital. Whilst we did not uphold the complaint, we found that the board had not provided Mrs C with a full response to her complaint. Therefore, we made a recommendation to address this.

We also considered that the specialist nurse acted in accordance with professional guidance in making the referral to the Reporter to the Children's Hearing given there was multi-agency concern about Mr A's health and wellbeing.

Recommendations

We recommended that the board:

• share with those staff dealing with complaints the importance of ensuring that full and comprehensive written responses are provided to complaints.