East Sussex County Council (21 009 457)
Category : Adult care services > Residential care
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Nov 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the care Mr B’s late mother, Mrs C received from her Care Provider. This is because further investigation could not add to the Care Provider’s response. We could not provide a remedy to Mrs C from any fault an investigation might uncover as she is now deceased.
The complaint
- Mr B complained his late mother, Mrs C had six falls in the eight weeks she lived in the care home between June and August 2020. After the last fall she suffered a fractured hip and had to wait for seven and a half hours for paramedics to arrive. Mr B says Mrs C’s medication was not returned when she left the home and staff were rude to him. Mr B says the Council should not have placed her in a care home which could not meet her needs.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We could not add to the Care Provider’s response to Mr B’s complaints even though he disagrees with it.
- Sadly Mrs C is now deceased so we could not provide a remedy to any fault an investigation might uncover. While Mr B is concerned the fractured hip exacerbated a decline in Mrs C’s health and ultimately resulted in her death, we could not make this causal link.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we could not add to the Care Provider’s response or remedy any fault to Mrs C which an investigation might uncover.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman