Poor communication made patient think something had gone wrong

What happened

Mr L had heart surgery and developed an infection. The Trust did all the right things to treat the infection, but did not tell Mr L that such cases can take years to clear without affecting a patient's general health.

Mr L complained to the Trust, but its responses did not explain what had happened and why the treatment was correct. When Mr L went to a meeting to discuss his complaint, the consultant walked out. The written response following this meeting was badly written and again the issues were poorly explained.

What we found

Mr L's care and treatment were good and even went beyond what was normally offered. However, the Trust did not explain everything well and this left Mr L concerned about his health. The Trust did not draw up a proper plan for dealing with Mr L's complaint and its responses were hard to understand. The Trust gave some information that did not make sense or fully answer Mr L's questions.

Putting it right

The consultant who had walked out of the meeting had already apologised to Mr L, so we did not recommend any further action on this point.

The Trust apologised to Mr L for its poor complaint handling and agreed to draw up plans to improve its communication and complaint handling.