Mr B died in hospital. The Trust could not reassure his family that the care he received was good because some records were sparse. The Trust's complaint handling was also poor.
What happened
Mr B was admitted to the Trust with chronic fatigue and lethargy. After a week in hospital, he had a heart attack and a few days later passed away. His family complained about Mr B's clinical care, nursing care and deterioration in condition while in hospital. The Trust handled the initial stages of the complaint quite well but was unable to reassure the family that Mr B had received good care.
What we found
Although Mr B had received a good standard of care, the Trust had not fully answered some questions. Mr B's care plans had not been recorded properly but this did not affect his care. The Trust took a long time to give us
the information we needed to complete our investigation.
Putting it right
We said that the failures in recording should be addressed to avoid them happening again, and the Trust should apologise for them. We also said that the Trust should apologise to the family for the delays it caused in the later
stages of the complaints process and pay them
£250 for the additional distress this caused. We felt that the failings in complaint handling were so significant that the Trust should analyse why these happened, produce an action plan to
put things right and send it to the Care Quality Commission.
Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Greater Manchester
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Apology
Compensation for non-financial loss
Taking steps to put things right