Complaint withdrawn

Summary

Mrs C complained about a mental health assessment of her late son, which was conducted by a mental health officer (MHO) employed by the council.

When we investigated Mrs C's complaint, we found that, although the MHO was employed by the council, at the time of the events, they acted as part of an NHS community mental health team. The council and NHS board agreed that, in this case, the NHS was responsible for the actions subject to the complaint, and we closed the complaint about the council and considered the NHS board's involvement as a separate case.

Summary

Mrs C complained about the dental treatment she received for a swelling in her mouth, which was subsequently found to be cancerous, and about the delay in referring her to a specialist for further investigation.

When we investigated Mrs C's complaint, we found that she had received the treatment as a private patient, rather than under the NHS. Under our legislation, we are not able to consider complaints about private dental treatment, and we closed our investigation of this complaint.

Summary

Mr C was told he did not need to do any more courses while in prison and in due course he was released. He was later recalled to prison and was then told that he did need to do more coursework. He complained that this was inappropriate. During our consideration of Mr C's complaint, the SPS resolved the matter for him and he decided to withdraw the complaint. Therefore, we took no further action on it.

Summary

Miss C complained about a dentist. The dental practice acknowledged her complaint and told her they intended to respond within 21 days. On the 21st day they wrote to her saying that they needed more time to reach a decision, and would respond within around two weeks. They provided a final response around two weeks later. Miss C complained that the time taken by the practice to respond had been unreasonable. Our investigation found that the practice's complaints procedure said they would seek to respond within ten working days and would give reasons for any requirement to extend this. As the practice had not given Miss C such reasons we upheld the complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• apologise to Miss C that they did not give her reasons for the delay in responding to her complaint; and
• review their complaints procedure in line with NHS Scotland's Can I Help You? guidance.

Summary

Mr C complained about the way Business Stream had calculated a reduction from his water bill, following a pipe burst in his caravan park.

In response to our enquiries and additional evidence provided by Mr C, Business Stream agreed to further reduce his bill. They also agreed to cancel a recovery charge they had applied to Mr C's account. Mr C told us that he would accept this offer and withdrew his complaint.

Summary

Mrs C complained about the care and treatment of her late brother. During our consideration of the complaint, Mrs C advised that she had decided to pursue the matter by other means, as the outcome she sought was financial compensation. We decided, in the circumstances, and under the provisions of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002, that we would not consider the matter further.

Summary
Ms C made a GP appointment for her daughter, who was unwell. When, however, her daughter became more unwell Ms C phoned to request a GP home visit on an earlier date. She did not specifically cancel the booked appointment. As their records showed that she had not kept an appointment on an earlier occasion, the practice wrote to her saying that if she continued to miss appointments, they would remove her from their register. She complained that it was unreasonable for them to have done this, and said that she was also unhappy with the practice's attitude when she phoned them about the letter.  We explained that although we could look at the first part of her complaint, we would be unable to prove what happened during the phone call.  Although she was disappointed that we would not be looking at this, she withdrew her complaint.