Poor complaint handling by NHS trust caused distress

What happened

Miss A complained that the Trust took too long to tell her about her diagnosis of cancer and incorrectly told her that she would be contacted before the follow-up appointment if her results were abnormal. She was naturally very upset to be told she had cancer at her follow-up appointment, especially when she had believed that she would be contacted in advance if the results were abnormal.

Miss A also complained that the Trust's complaint handling was poor. She was unhappy with the first response to her complaint because the Trust did not say how it would prevent patients from being given incorrect information about how they would receive test results in future. Miss A did not receive a full response to her second letter of complaint for seven months, after she had pursued

this repeatedly and been given conflicting information about how her complaint was being dealt with. This caused significant anger, frustration and distress to Miss A.

What we found

The Trust could have given Miss A her diagnosis more quickly but we felt that the time this took was not unreasonable and would not have adversely affected her prognosis. We did not uphold this part of the complaint.

The Trust had discussed with staff the fact that Miss A had been given incorrect information about how she would receive her results but

it did not explain this well to Miss A in its responses to her complaint. We agreed with Miss A that the Trust's complaint handling was not acceptable and we upheld this part of the complaint.

Putting it right

The Trust paid Miss A £250 in recognition of the distress caused by its poor complaint handling. It also wrote to Miss A to apologise and to say how it would prevent similar problems from happening in future.