The Ombudsman received two separate complaints from Mr F and Mrs B who respectively complained about the care provided to their father and husband by the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust. Both complained about the length of time it took for an ambulance to attend following the 999 calls they made to the service. They also complained about the manner in which the Trust had dealt with their complaints.
The Ombudsman found that ambulances and rapid response vehicles from other divisions of the service could have been deployed to both incidents, and they might have arrived with the patients sooner, but that their deployment had been overlooked. The Ombudsman was also critical of the quality of the Trust’s investigations into Mr F and Mrs B’s complaints, the content of its responses and the time it took to provide them. The Ombudsman upheld both complaints in full. He made a total of nine recommendations including that the Trust apologise to Mr F, Mrs B and their respective families and to pay them appropriate redress. He also recommended that the Trust should reinvestigate or review the original complaint; review the relevant policies and procedures and its management of resources and audit any changes it has implemented.
A copy of the full report can be downloaded here.