Decision report 201003968

Summary
Mrs C complained that her late father (Mr A) received inadequate care and treatment in hospital. She said that Mr A had been admitted three times and that his condition worsened during the period of approximately three months he was in hospital care. Mrs C also said that several wrong diagnoses were made and Mr A suffered considerable weight loss while in hospital. Furthermore, he was terminally ill and no one told her that he was dying or what his diagnosis was.

Having taken advice from two of our medical advisers, we did not uphold Mrs C's complaints. On the allegation of poor care and treatment we considered that, given Mr A’s case was complex and unusual, he was appropriately diagnosed and treated by the hospital. Our advisers explained that Mr A was suffering from a rare combination of conditions and complications that did not respond to reasonable medical treatment. We did not find evidence of inadequate communication of Mr A’s condition to his family, although we acknowledged that his illness presented considerable challenges to all concerned.