Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the care Mr B received at the care provider’s home after leaving hospital, which his son Mr C says contributed to a significant decline in his health and caused his family distress. This is because we have no power to investigate the provision of health care rather than social care, and because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the care provider kept Mr B’s family informed more generally about personal social care matters.

The complaint

1. Mr C says the care provider failed to provide suitable physiotherapy care and overlooked the condition of Mr B’s feet on admission to the home. He says this meant Mr B did not receive necessary treatment for wounds to his feet. In turn he says this led to a decline in his health after he left the home; he had to go to hospital again almost immediately then to a hospice where he died some time later. Mr C says these events and the home’s failure to keep him and his mother informed caused them distress, and he would like the provider to acknowledge and apologise for what happened and refund the fees they paid.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about the actions of adult social care providers in privately arranged social or personal care and decide whether they have caused injustice, or could have caused injustice, to the person complaining. I have used the term fault to describe this. We cannot, however, investigate action which is about health or nursing care. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 34B and 34C)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Care Provider’s response to the complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Care Provider says a nurse examined Mr B soon after admission and noted previous injury to parts of his feet, so referred Mr B to the in-house podiatry service. We cannot investigate the actions of the nurse or podiatry service as they amount to health care services rather than personal social care.
6. The Care Provider has given details of the physiotherapy Mr B received while staying at the care home but as it, too, is a health care service we have no power to investigate it.
7. Mr C’s complaint about the care home’s communication with Mr B’s family relates mainly to matters of his health and therapy rather than the accommodation and personal social care he received, which we could not investigate. The Provider has given details of its communications generally, however, and they do not contain enough evidence of fault to warrant us investigating.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr C’s complaint because we have no power to investigate most of it and there is not enough evidence of fault in the home’s communication with Mr B’s family about social care matters to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman