Summary: I will not investigate this complaint regarding the Care Home’s response time to their resident who had a serious medical issue. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Care Home to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Ms X, complains that when she went to visit her aunt at the Care Home, it failed to act in a prompt manner in response to her concerns regarding her aunt’s medical issue. She says that it failed to provide adequate or timely care for her aunt who unfortunately died.
2. Ms X would like the incident to be acknowledged by the care home staff, and an apology.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about adult social care providers and decide whether their actions have caused an injustice, or could have caused injustice, to the person making the complaint or others. I have used the term fault to describe such actions. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B and 34C)
4. We may investigate a complaint on behalf of someone who has died or who cannot authorise someone to act for them. The complaint may be made by:

• their personal representative (if they have one), or
• someone we consider to be suitable.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(2), as amended)

5. When considering complaints, if there is a conflict of evidence, we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we will weigh up the available relevant evidence and base our findings on what we think was more likely to have happened.

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Care Provider.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

8. Ms X visited her aunt at the Care Home in July 2020.
9. On sight of her aunt, Miss X could see that something was not right. She asked the staff for help.
10. Ms X complains that the staff did not act fast enough or at all, and she was left to call an ambulance and look after her aunt herself.
11. The Care Home report states that the staff did, in fact, act straight away and took the phone from Ms X’s partner to speak to the emergency services.
12. Unfortunately Ms X’s aunt died due to a serious medical issue.
13. Witness statements from the Care Home state that the staff did act as soon as practicable. Although we have conflicting evidence, we are unlikely to be able to conclude there was fault by the Care Home on the balance of probabilities. There is no independent corroborating evidence to warrant investigation.

Back to top

Final decision

14. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant this.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman