Prisoner's complaint about changes to his medication

What happened

Mr E had been taking strong painkillers for a back injury for several years. He was in a prison where Serco Group PLC was responsible for primary medical care and handling medical complaints. Serco contracted the provision of GP care at the prison to a local GP practice.

A GP from the practice noted that Mr E was taking two forms of opiate medication, which was not appropriate. The GP stopped one of Mr E's medications and reduced the dosage of the other without telling him. Mr E then reported several withdrawal symptoms. A different GP saw him a week later, and prescribed the medication that had been stopped. Mr E said that he used heroin during this period to help with his withdrawal symptoms.

Mr E complained to Serco about the change to his medication. Serco sent him separate responses. After the first two responses, Mr E brought his complaint to us. We considered that Serco had not responded reasonably to his complaint and we asked it to respond again. Mr E was unhappy with Serco's third answer and asked us to investigate.

We partly upheld Mr E's complaint.

What we found

The GP did not continue the prescription of one of Mr E's medications and did not tell him the reason for reducing his other medication. Serco then sent Mr E three responses to his complaint that were neither accurate nor reasonable.

While these failings caused Mr E mild back pain, withdrawal symptoms, distress and inconvenience, we saw no evidence that he suffered from severe withdrawal symptoms or that he was required to use heroin as a result.

Putting it right

Serco paid Mr E £250. It developed an action plan to improve its complaint handling.