Trust provided good clinical care but failed in complaint handling

What happened

Mrs A had a stroke and was treated at an acute stroke unit. She was transferred to the Trust as an inpatient and fed via a nasogastric tube (a tube that passes from the nose into the stomach) because of her difficulty in swallowing. Mrs A remained at the Trust until she passed away two and a half months later. During that time plans had been made to discharge her to a care home, but in the event she was too poorly for this to be followed through.

Mr A was concerned that his wife did not receive adequate levels of care from the Trust's speech and language therapists who were helping her because the stroke had affected her speech. He felt that Mrs A should have received particular care because she was being fed via a nasogastric tube. Mr A said that this was made worse by a number of changes to the therapy personnel. He also felt that more attempts should have been made to introduce her to solid feeding.

Mr A also complained about the time it took the Trust to respond to his complaint.

What we found

We partly upheld the complaint. The Trust's records showed that Mrs A received appropriate care throughout her stay and that this was continuous despite the staff changes. There were no failings in the care and treatment or the method of feeding.

The Trust took far too long to respond to Mr A's complaint and failed to adequately explain the delay.

Putting it right

The Trust apologised to Mr A that its handling of his complaint took far too long. It also drew up plans to avoid a recurrence of these failings.