Trust made an error when booking a follow up appointment for patient

What happened

Mrs C fractured her ankle after an accident and had treatment at the Trust. She said that staff advised her to put her leg up and rest it, and gave her a follow up appointment in two months.ÿ Mrs C received a letter to confirm this. Mrs C was distressed by this, so went to a private doctor for a second opinion. The private doctor told her that she should only rest her foot for two weeks, and if she had followed the Trust's advice she would have permanently lost the use of her ankle.  She paid £323.50 for this advice.

Mrs C contacted the Trust and it told her that she should have had a follow up appointment two weeks after her initial consultation, but due to human error the appointment was actually made for two months' time. The Trust said this was later corrected in a letter to Mrs C's GP.

The Trust apologised to Mrs C for the misunderstanding but explained that it had written to her GP and corrected the time of the appointment. It said it would have expected Mrs C or her GP to contact the Trust if they had any concerns over the follow up care or advice the consultant gave Mrs C. The Trust did not agree to reimburse Mrs A's costs so she came to us.

What we found

The Trust made an error in booking of Mrs C's follow up consultation. As a result of this Mrs C was distressed and sought a second opinion which she paid for privately. If the Trust had given Mrs C an appointment in two weeks' time she would not have sought and paid for a second opinion. While the Trust acknowledged the error and apologised for this, it did not put right the injustice Mrs C suffered as it declined to reimburse the costs of her private consultation.

Putting it right

The Trust had already acknowledged the error and apologised to Mrs C. It agreed to improve its service by copying all clinic letters to patients in the future. The Trust reimbursed Mrs C £323.50 for the cost of the private appointment.