Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council unsafely discharged her mother from hospital. Further investigation is unlikely to achieve anything meaningful.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains that the Council discharged her mother, Mrs Y, from hospital without a proper package of care in place. Ms X says that as a result, Mrs Y had to be readmitted to hospital the same day which caused her and her family distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs Y was considered medically fit to be discharged from hospital. A Council social worker organised a package of care for her which would start on the day she returned home. Mrs Y also needed specialist equipment which the hospital was responsible for organising.
6. Shortly after Mrs Y returned home, the social worker discovered the specialist equipment was not in place. Mrs Y therefore had to be readmitted to hospital within an hour of her return home.
7. The Council apologised for not checking the equipment was in place before Mrs Y’s discharge. Ms X remained unhappy and complained to the Ombudsman.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has agreed there was some fault in its actions and apologised. Further investigation would achieve nothing more.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because further investigation would achieve nothing more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman