4. Miss U complains about the poor communication and misinformation she received from the Trust. This was while her father, Mr U, was an inpatient and receiving palliative care from May 2021.
5. Miss U says, as a result, she suffered additional stress and sadness around a difficult time when her father was passing away.
6. Miss U wants a formal apology. She also wants evidence the Matron spoke to ward staff, as set out in the Trust’s complaint response.
7. Miss U explained the Trust had miscommunicated her father’s condition and provided the family with incorrect information. This was when ward staff spoke to Miss U and her family members. She said the Trust provided incorrect updates on several occasions, and she provided us with the details of these.
8. Miss U explained to us the Trust did not formally apologise for its mistakes. She also explained the Trust said her concerns were raised to ward staff following her complaint. However, she feels the Trust could have just said this to her and she does not know if this happened.
11. We reviewed the letters of complaint and the Trust’s complaint responses. Miss U explained to us that her concerns were the communication issues.
12. She said the Trust did not formally apologise and this was upsetting. She believed it was important the Trust apologised. She also wanted evidence the Trust had communicated the concerns she raised to its staff.
13. There are indications the Trust acknowledged Miss U’s concerns about its communication. However, it was unclear to us if the Trust had apologised. The Trust had also provided evidence of Miss U’s concerns being discussed with the ward staff.
14. Miss U explained to us that she was keen to resolve this complaint and move on. During our discussions, she said she did not understand why the Trust would not apologise.
15. Our principles say that where poor service has been identified, organisations should apologise. This means the organisation should acknowledge the failure, accept responsibility for it, and express sincere regret for any resulting impact. The organisation should provide an assurance that lessons have been learnt.
16. Miss U was happy for us to provide the Trust with a further explanation of her complaint. She hoped the Trust would reconsider her concerns and provide her with an apology, as well as evidence of her concerns being communicated to staff.
17. We provided Miss U’s complaint summary to the Trust. The Trust explained that it felt it had already apologised for the communication issues which occurred. The Trust said it was sorry this did not come across in its complaint response. It agreed to provide Miss U with a formal letter of apology.
18. The Trust also provided us with a copy of a communication which was sent to the ward staff following Miss U’s complaint. It explained it did take her concerns seriously and wanted to ensure miscommunication issues did not occur again. The Trust agreed to share this with Miss U.
19. We are sorry to hear about the circumstances which caused Miss U to complain to our service. We recognise these events have caused her considerable distress. We are grateful Miss U brought her complaint to our attention.
20. We are satisfied the action the Trust has agreed to undertake has provided a resolution to Miss U’s complaint. These actions appear to be in line with our principles.
1. We have carefully considered Miss U’s complaint about Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We were sorry to hear about Miss U’s concerns. We recognise these events have caused her considerable distress.
2. We have seen the Trust intended to apologise to Miss U in its complaint response. However, we do not think the apology was clear. The Trust appreciates this and has agreed to provide a formal apology to Miss U.
3. The Trust has also agreed to provide Miss U with a copy of a written communication sent to its staff on the ward. This is to show Miss U’s concerns were addressed and to prevent these events occurring in the future.