This investigation found that the system for communicating with patients on healthcare waiting lists is in ‘disarray’, and concluded that significant and repeated failures across the system amounted to ‘systemic maladministration’.
It urged the Department of Health to work with Health Trusts, GPs and others to address the failings.
We recommended that a healthcare provider review its policies and improve staff training after we investigated the care it provided to a complainant’s elderly mother.
We recommended that the Hospice should review staff training on clear communication with patients and their carers, following our investigation into a complaint by the parents of a child in its care.