12. Mr A complains, between 19 October 2023 and 21 December 2023, the Practice failed to act on his five requests for it to schedule a flu vaccination for his wife at their home.
13. UKHA explains: The flu vaccine is an injection in your arm. The best time to have a vaccine is in the autumn. You need a vaccine every year as flu can change each year. Your GP should get in touch with you. If they don’t get in touch, you should contact them to arrange to have one.
14. UKHA refers to the NHS online leaflet on flu which says: The flu vaccine aims to protect you against the most common types of flu viruses. There's still a chance you might get flu after getting vaccinated, but it's likely to be milder and not last as long. The vaccine usually takes up to 14 days to work.
15. The Practice explain, flu vaccinations at the patient’s home are provided by a separate community nursing team. It says, its administrative staff normally forward flu vaccine at home requests to the community nursing team.
16. The Practice explained, it reviewed Mrs M’s medical records and telephone conversations it had with Mr A. It said, on each occasion Mr A spoke to the same member of staff. It said, it found the member of staff who he spoke to failed to record each call properly which resulted in its inaction and subsequent delay in vaccinating Mrs M.
17. Mr A says, his wife received a telephone call from a community nurse on 10 January 2024. He says, he questioned why the nurse took around three months to act on his vaccine request. He says, the nurse explained it received instruction from his wife’s GP earlier the same day. In the days later, the community nurse attended Mrs M’s home and vaccinated her.
18. The Practice accept it delayed referring Mr A’s vaccine at home request to the community nursing team. We consider this indicates potential maladministration by the Practice.
19. On 25 December 2024, Mrs M presented to her local hospital complaining of flu-like symptoms. She remained in hospital for around two weeks. On 19 January 2024, Mrs M presented again to hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Mrs M sadly died from pneumonia on 28 January 2024.
20. The Study explains, flu affects up to 20% of the general population, and pneumonia is a leading cause of death after flu infection. Post-flu pneumonia is common in the elderly. Flu vaccine significantly reduces pneumonia and flu related hospitalisations.
21. It seems an earlier vaccination may have reduced Mrs M’s risk of contracting flu and/or pneumonia. We consider this indicates an injustice may have stemmed from the Practice’s potential maladministration.
22. For the Practice to put right its failings, Mr A asks for us to recommend it improve its service. He also says the matter he complains about is typical of systemic problems at the Practice.
23. We carefully considered what the Practice said it did to prevent similar delays happening to others. In addition, we reviewed past complaints we received about the Practice to question potential systemic problems.
24. Past complaints we have seen about the Practice were either about clinical matters, or link to clinical matters. We see no other administrative complaints about the Practice. We do not consider there are systemic problems with the Practice’s administration. We will keep Mr A’s complaint on record for us to refer to should we receive a similar complaint about the Practice in the future.
25. The Practice explained, what went wrong on this occasion stemmed from poor record keeping by one member of its staff. It added, in similar circumstances it would normally discipline staff. The Practice said, on this occasion the staff member in question left their employment before their failings came to light.
26. The Practice also explained, its administrative staff receive initial training in documenting and acting on enquiries. It also explained, since Mr A’s complaint, it has reminded its staff of the importance of fully documenting enquiries and actions in patient records.
27. We appreciate what Mr A told us about systemic problems at the Practice. We found no additional evidence to support his view. This suggests what went wrong in this instance was an isolated problem rather than a systemic issue.
28. The Practice reminded its staff of their training, and the standards it expects of them. The Practice took steps to improve similar to those we would likely recommend should we investigate further.
29. We carefully considered Mr A’s complaint. We appreciate what he told us about the circumstances which led to his wife’s death. We were saddened to read how the matters Mr A complains about may have led to such a tragic outcome for his wife.
30. The Practice accept it failed to act on his request for a flu vaccine for his wife between 19 October 2023 and 21 December 2023. The evidence suggests an earlier flu vaccine may have reduced the impact of or prevented Mrs M from contracting flu on 25 December 23 and/or pneumonia on 19 January 2024. We consider this suggests an injustice stemmed from the Practices potential maladministration.
31. We expect the Practice to put right the injustice which stemmed from its potential maladministration. Mr A asks for us to recommend the Practice improve its service to prevent the same delays happening to others. We see the Practice have taken steps to prevent similar administrative problems. Should we investigate Mr A’s complaint further, we are unlikely to recommend the Practice do more to improve its administration. For this reason, we will take no further action on Mr A’s complaint.