Area Team didn't investigate complaint about GP properly

What happened

Mr P complained about the care that his wife received from her GP before her death. He made the complaint to NHS England which was handled by its West Yorkshire Area Team.

The Area Team received Mr P's complaint in early summer 2013 and received the GP's comments the next month. Mr P chased the response twice in the autumn but the Area Team did not respond until nearly the end of the year.

Its response was brief and said that the GP had managed Mrs P's care in line with national guidance. Mr P was unhappy with its investigation and complained to us.

What we found

There was no reason for the Area Team's delay in responding to Mr P, and it was unreasonable that Mr P had to wait over three months for a response and was not kept updated.

The information from the GP to the Area Team was limited and lacked detail about the care provided to Mrs P. However, despite this, the Area Team provided a response saying that the GP had managed Mrs P 'in accordance with national clinical guidelines'. However, there was no evidence to support this or show which guidelines it was referring to.

Mr P had made a serious complaint. He believed that if the GP had referred his wife to hospital, she may not have died. However, although this was not the case, there was no evidence that an appropriate investigation had been carried out. Mr P had no assurance that the Area Team had taken his complaint seriously, or looked into it in line with the NHS complaint regulations and its own complaints handling policy.

The Area Team should have obtained a more detailed response from the GP and then made sure it was clinically accurate before reaching its conclusion. It failed to do so, and as a consequence it added to Mr P's upset and depression following his wife's death. It also meant that additionally he had to bring his complaint to us.

Putting it right

West Yorkshire Area Team wrote to Mr P to acknowledge and apologise for the failings we identified in its complaint handling and the impact that this has had on him. It also paid him £250 to reflect the additional upset caused, and drew up plans to make sure lessons were learnt from this complaint.