healthmedicinet

During that time it made a series of factual errors, forcing Scott and Susanna
Morrish, from Newton Abbot, Devon, to repeatedly correct accounts of what
had happened to their son.

In the letter, seen by The Telegraph, Mr Hunt states: “I am concerned
that in a complaint of this seriousness and sensitivity there should have
been a delay of two years before Sam’s parents received your support. I am
certain that such a delay must have caused additional untold stress and
upset to Sam’s parents at an already terrible time for them.”

Although Mr Hunt recognises that the ombudsman last week apologised to Mr and
Mrs Morrish for taking so long over the complaint, he criticises the
organisation for not apologising for the mistakes it made during the
investigation.

The ombudsman found that Sam, who died in December 2010, would almost
certainly have survived if he had been given antibiotics sooner to treat an
infection.

He died 36 hours after his parents sought medical help for suspected flu and a
chest infection, having been failed by his local doctors’ surgery, an
out-of-hours GP service, NHS Direct and South Devon Healthcare NHS
Foundation trust, the report found.

Call handlers at NHS Direct – which has since been replaced by the NHS 111
phone service – failed to categorise his mother’s call as urgent, despite
indications that the child’s vomit contained strands of blood. Even when
medical staff finally realised he had severe poisoning they waited three
hours before administering the antibiotics that could have saved his life.

The report says the family suffered “a further injustice” because local health
authorities failed to investigate properly.

In further criticism of the ombudsman, the Health Secretary says its treatment
of the Morrish family’s complaints into the way the NHS handled Sam’s case
suggested it had failed to learn the lessons of the Mid Staffordshire
scandal to “lead the way in making it easier to complain about public
services”.

The Patient’s Association, which supported the Morrish family in its
complaints, said the ombudsman was not ‘fit for purpose’.

It said: “It is heartbreaking and wrong that a grieving family has had to
spend the last two and a half years clarifying the numerous inadequacies of
this organisation that sits at the very top of the NHS Complaints system.
The inability of the PHSO to carry out a thorough investigation of
circumstances and to report accurately highlights the organisation’s
failures.

Mr Morrish said that the ombudsman had “failed everybody: Parliament, patients
and all NHS staff”.

He added: “What the PHSO should have been doing, alongside investigating why
Sam died, was to probe why the NHS failed to investigate Sam’s death in the
year that followed.”

Dame Julie said she had personally apologised to the family and would meet
them to discuss the case. She admitted: “We took too long to investigate
this case and made errors in the draft report. I recognise the family’s
experience of us has contributed to their distress.”

However, she added: “Importantly, we upheld their complaint about the failings
of five NHS organisations. The NHS is acting on all our recommendations
which means lives will be saved in future.”