I am writing further to your information request of 12 July 2015, in which you requested information about the number of complaints or court cases since September 2013 where either care or nutrition/dehydration has been mentioned.
The following information includes all investigations concluded since 1 October 2013 which had nutrition/hydration as a keyword added. We are unable to provide numbers for cases closed at the intake or assessment stage as keywords are not consistently added for these types of cases.
In an effort to help explain our approach to your request I have set out an explanation of our use of ‘keywords’ in cases.
Common themes such as the nature of the complaint or the type of NHS service being complained about are captured by ‘keywords’ which are added to cases when they are closed. When a case is closed, the caseworker enters keywords onto our casework management system. These keywords will give a general idea of the nature of the complaint but will not necessarily provide a full understanding of the issues complained about, which can be complex and span a number of areas.
When a case is closed keywords are entered onto our casework system. ‘Nutrition/hydration’ is a keyword. However our system relies on caseworkers selecting that specific keyword when closing the case. I have provided this data below however it may not provide an accurate reflection of the number of cases we have received that involved nutrition/hydration issues.
| Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Investigations concluded | Upheld/partly upheld | Not upheld | Other |
| 2013/14 (Q3 and Q4) | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014/15 | 85 | 54 | 28 | 3 |
| 2015/16 (Q1) | 106 | 58 | 39 | 9 |
| Total | 198 | 119 | 67 | 12 |
Please note that the only keyword available for the period 2013/14 (Q3 and Q4) was nutrition, after this point there was a nutrition/hydration keyword.
It should also be noted that care is not a keyword that is used in health investigations. However I have identified a number of keywords which may be relevant to the information you have requested. Please do not hesitate to get in contact with me if you are interested in information on the number of investigations concluded since 1 October 2013 which have any of the following keywords added:
- end of life care
- long term care
- other: clinical care & treatment
- personal care
- social care
- treatment plans/care plans.
I hope the information I have provided is helpful.
FOI/DP Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
August 2015