Trust communicated with solicitors rather than patient's family

What happened

Mr R was diagnosed with liver cancer in early 2012. Doctors advised him that there was nothing more they could do for him and that his care from this point on would be palliative. The Trust's community nursing team cared for Mr R at his home until he was transferred to the Trust's local community hospital where he died in spring 2012.

Mr and Mrs N had several meetings with the Trust to discuss their concerns, and the Trust carried out an investigation and prepared a report. The Trust also created an action plan for future patient care to address the aspects of Mr R's care that should have been better, such as offering the family Macmillan support. The Trust then explained to Mr and Mrs N that it considered local resolution had been exhausted and they should bring any outstanding concerns to us. Mr and Mrs N continued to contact the Trust until the Trust's solicitor's sent them a letter.

The letter said that on some occasions their attitude towards the Trust's staff was 'aggressive' and 'abusive' and enclosed a copy of the Trust's policy on habitual complainants. It said that the Trust may consider taking further action, such as legal action, if Mr and Mrs N persisted in contacting the Trust about their complaint.

However, a final meeting took place between Mr and Mrs N and the Trust in spring 2014.

What we found

Aspects of Mr R's care should have been better. For example, the Trust should have offered the family Macmillan support but did not. There were also some gaps in the Trust's record keeping which needed to be improved. However, the Trust had already appropriately acknowledged, apologised for, and addressed these issues.

The Trust had handled Mr and Mrs N's complaint fairly and sensitively and had also taken appropriate action to address areas it needed to improve. However, it was not proportionate or customer focused of the Trust to communicate its concerns about Mr and Mrs N's behaviour via its solicitors. This could and should have been communicated by the Trust itself before involving a legal third party. We could understand that Mr and Mrs N felt threatened by receiving this letter and this would have caused them some distress at the time. Therefore we upheld this part of the complaint.

Putting it right

The Trust wrote to Mr and Mrs N to acknowledge that it did not act in a proportionate or customer focused manner by sending them a letter from its solicitors and apologised for the distress this caused them.