Ms L complained, about how the Trust responded to an emergency call from her late mother, Mrs F. The investigation focused on whether the emergency call was triaged appropriately and reasonably and whether an upgraded priority assigned to the call, following failed attempts to contact her by telephone, was appropriate.
The Ombudsman found that Mrs F’s emergency call was triaged appropriately and that although there was an error in coding the call, the overall priority was correct which meant there was no effect on the overall ambulance response time. This element of the complaint was not upheld.
The Ombudsman found that the upgraded priority assigned to Mrs F’s call following failed attempts to contact her by telephone were not managed in accordance with the Trust’s procedures. This was an injustice to Mrs F and this aspect of the complaint was upheld.
The Trust accepted the Ombudsman’s recommendations that it apologise to Ms L for the shortcomings identified and to remind staff to provide robust documentation when deciding whether or not to upgrade a call.