Appropriate investigations for cardiac symptoms let down by poor communication with patient

What happened

Ms B was in hospital for twelve days in 2012 with chest pains and shortness of breath. She then went to the hospital for reviews and in summer 2013 it discharged her back to her GP.

Ms B complained and attended a local meeting. She wrote several letters after this. The Trust overlooked some of her letters and delayed replying to others. When Ms B first came to us, we saw that some of the issues she raised had not been answered and the Trust agreed to look at the complaint again. Although the Trust should have provided a further response in one month, it was four months before it replied again.

Ms B complained to us that her symptoms were ignored, she did not receive a diagnosis, she was only reviewed by a consultant once and no one told her what they were doing or what they had found. Ms B also complained that a junior doctor made an inappropriate comment that anxiety or depression could be the cause of her symptoms.

Ms B also complained about how the Trust had handled her complaint.

What we found

The Trust managed Ms B's treatment appropriately and carried out appropriate investigations.

However, it did not always tell her what was going on or discuss its conclusions following the tests. There was no evidence that this poor communication affected the treatment Ms B received but it meant that the Trust did not keep Ms B adequately informed, and this caused her uncertainty.

Ms B's complaint should have been handled more promptly and more thoroughly. The Trust acknowledged this, but we did not think that it went far enough.

Putting it right

The Trust apologised for the failings we identified and paid Ms B £300 as a tangible acknowledgment of poor complaint handling. It agreed to draw up an action plan to describe what it has done or plans to do to avoid a repeat of these failings.