NHS ordered to apologise over ‘unreasonable’ 18-month hospital tests wait for patient

An NHS board has been ordered to apologise after a patient waited 18 months for hospital neurological and respiratory tests.

A watchdog investigated complaints raised by the patient against NHS Highland after alleging that the health board had not taken “reasonable action” after private specialists in England assessed them and recommended hospital admission for tests.

Identified as patient C, the person claims it took a year-and-a-half for the health board to approve and arrange a respiratory referral.

The NHS board claimed the delay was due to uncertainty over a consultant’s approval for MRI imaging and whether patient C wished to remain a private patient.

However, the watchdog found that the patient had requested their private care be paused pending the board’s multi-disciplinary team discussions.

The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) concluded that there was an “unreasonable delay” in progressing the referral and that the board’s communication was inadequate.

The watchdog has also told NHS Highland to take action to prevent a repeat of the delays for the respiratory and neurological referrals and to ensure “accurate communications”.

NHS Highland was also asked to ensure that communication with patients is “proactive, open, honest, and regular” while they are waiting for a response to a referral.

The report concluded: “The board failed to provide reasonable updates, which might have revealed sooner that the hospital ‘C’ had been referred to, but had not received their original submission of the referral. Given this, we upheld the complaint.

“We found that the board unreasonably delayed C’s neurology referral. The board said that the delay was due to uncertainty over a consultant’s approval for MRI imaging and whether ‘C’ wished to remain a private patient.

“We found that ‘C’ had advised that they would request private care be paused pending the board’s multi-disciplinary team discussions. While the decision to refer ‘C’ to another NHS board was reasonable, taking six months to action this was not. We upheld the complaint.

“Finally, we found that communication with ‘C’ was inadequate. Given this, we upheld this complaint and note the steps that the board have taken to address this.”

An NHS Highland spokesperson said: “We sincerely apologise to the patient and their family for the failings in care identified by the ombudsman.

“Patient care is our absolute priority, and we are committed to learning from this case. Our Chief Executive has already written to the patient to apologise and explain the measures that have been carried out to reflect our commitment to making meaningful improvements to ensure it does not happen again.”