Summary: Ms A complains about the care provided to her sister at Bridgeside Lodge Care Home (the Care Home). We will not investigate this complaint because the Care Home is willing to reinvestigate. There is nothing more we can achieve by looking at the complaint before the Care Home completes its investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms A complains about the care and treatment provided to her sister, Dr B, at Bridgeside Lodge Care Home between December 2022 to March 2023. The care at the Home was funded by S117 aftercare, paid for by Hackney Council (the Council) and NHS North Central London ICB (the ICB) and managed by East London NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust).
2. Specifically, Ms A complains;
• The care provided to her sister was poor. She did not have an up-to-date care plan and no one wanted to take responsibility when Ms A found her sister in a poorly cared for condition.
• Ms A held Lasting Power of Attorney for Dr B, but she was not told about important decisions, such as the change to using a hoist.
• Ms A found her sister bleeding twice from unexplained wounds. She had to ask staff what had happened, no one offered to explain.
• The Care Home’s notes are full of incorrect entries, and a lot of them do not relate to the care she personally witnessed. They are also full of libellous entries about her which she feels is inappropriate and shows staff were more interested in managing her than caring for her sister
• The Care Home has not fully investigated and did not follow its own complaint procedure. It cancelled meetings at short notice, did not give minutes of meetings when asked and often did not keep her updated about what was happening.
• The Care Home refused to make referrals for things Dr B needed, such as a wheelchair and when she was palliative, staff decided she had no needs without explanation.
3. Ms A has been left unable to move on. She has flashbacks to seeing her sister in the poor condition and has been shocked at the entries in the records which refer to her.
4. Ms A wants a full and thorough investigation of her concerns. She wants the Care Home to admit it made mistakes and apologise to her.

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The Ombudsmen’s role and powers

5. We have the power to jointly consider complaints about health and social care. Since April 2015 a single team has considered these complaints acting for both Ombudsmen. (Local Government Act 1974, section 33ZA, as amended, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 18ZA)
6. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 3(2) and Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered all the information provided to us by Ms A.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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What I found

9. The Care Home has offered to re-investigate Ms A’s concerns and provide her with a further complaint response.
10. We will not generally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the matter has been brought to the relevant organisation’s attention and that organisation has had a reasonable opportunity to investigate and reply to the complaint. (Local Government Act 1974 section 26(5), as amended and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 9(5))
11. While we acknowledge Ms A has had a complaint response, she has outstanding concerns that the Care Home are willing to investigate. They are best placed to address Ms A’s outstanding complaints and should do so before we can look at the complaint.
12. It may be beneficial for the Council, ICB and Trust to work with the Care Home to resolved Miss A’s concerns. A copy of this decision will be sent to all organisations.
13. There is nothing more we can look at until the Care Home has completed its further investigation.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate this complaint. The Care Home has offered to reinvestigate Ms A’s complaint, and there is nothing more we can achieve by looking at it before it does.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman