Severe delay in accessing psychological therapy

What happened

Ms H's GP assessed that she needed face-to-face psychological intervention. The Trust initially told her, in mid-2013, that there would be a short wait. However, as the months went by, she was given contradictory information and it then proved difficult to access treatment at a convenient time and place. In late 2013 Ms H asked to be removed from the waiting list.

What we found

The main reason for the delay was that the Trust had taken on hundreds of referrals from another provider's waiting list during early summer 2013. The Trust had only had ten days' notice and so had been unable to plan for this.

However, the Trust's communication with Ms H was poor; it had been unable to tell her accurately how long the wait would be and it had not returned all her calls. This added to her distress.

Putting it right

The Trust acknowledged that its communication had been poor and it undertook to make improvements. It agreed to apologise to Ms H for not returning all her calls and Ms H was satisfied with this.