Decision Report 201901018

Summary

C complained to the board about their discharge from hospital. The discharge letter to C's GP said that C would be followed up by a consultant psychiatrist in an out-patient clinic and by C's community psychiatric nurse (CPN). C attended the consultant psychiatrist's out-patient clinic. Based on their assessment of C on that day, the consultant psychiatrist discharged C from the clinic. Later, C became concerned about a related matter. When pursuing this further, C spoke to their GP who told C that they had been discharged from the consultant psychiatrist's clinic. C complained to the board that they had not been advised of being discharged. The board told C that the consultant psychiatrist recalled that the discharging had been discussed. C disputed this and also complained that a promised referral for CPN follow-up had not taken place. The board reiterated their response regarding the discharge and explained that a referral to a CPN was not felt to be required following an occupational therapy assessment in the days following their discharge from hospital. The board apologised that this had not been communicated to C appropriately. C was dissatisfied and raised their complaints with this office.

We took independent advice from a suitably qualified adviser. We concluded that the failure to action the promised referral for CPN follow-up had been reasonable in the circumstances and that the available evidence indicates that C was advised that they would be discharged by the consultant psychiatrist. We did not uphold C's complaint.