The complaint

The Office of the Ombudsman received a complaint concerning the treatment of a patient’s family when the patient was hospitalised and eventually passed away.

The patient’s daughter lodged a complaint with this Office regarding an incident that occurred while her father was hospitalised for a terminal disease. In her complaint, this lady informed this Office that her mother, the patient’s wife, was not allowed near her husband due to restrictions on visiting times at the hospital, which were related to the General Elections in Malta.

The daughter claimed that the mother was turned away from the ward in an arrogant manner and, in the following days, when they queried the authorities about this, they were informed that the hospital staff was merely following regulations set out by the Electoral Commission. The relatives wrote to the Electoral Commission, which confirmed that no such restrictions were in place on that day. When questions were sent to the Customer Care Unit, the responses were unhelpful and even suggested that the hospital staff had attempted to contact the family, who were purportedly unreachable.

Facts and findings

Communications were made with the Ministry for Health by the Commissioner for Health. The Ministry provided their comments on the matter. Various meetings were held with the interested parties separately, and it transpired that the sequence of events as described by the patient’s daughter was accurate. Data logs of telephone calls to the relatives’ telephone numbers were requested, showing that four calls were indeed made to the relative’s landline registered with the ward in the contact details of the next of kin. It also emerged that there was not just one notice regarding the regulations pertaining to visitors due to the election circumstances, but at least three.

The staff noted the first, but the subsequent notices may not have been properly communicated to all staff members.

A very cordial meeting between the hospital management and the daughter and son of the patient was held, during which the Commissioner for Health explained the findings of his investigation to all present.

The situation as it evolved in the days leading to the elections was clarified to everyone’s satisfaction. The hospital management acknowledged that the information regarding the election process could have been better communicated to the entire staff, and how the Customer Care Unit handled the issue might not have been entirely satisfactory. The family was made aware that an attempt to communicate with them via telephone had indeed been made, but unfortunately, as it was a landline, this contact was unsuccessful.

At the end of the meeting, the hospital management and the Commissioner for Health inquired if the daughter’s mother would like to meet with the management so that the situation could also be explained to her. The daughter promised to ask her mother if she wished to do so, and indeed, another meeting with her mother was held at the hospital. The unfortunate circumstances surrounding her husband’s last days were explained to her, and clarifications were offered regarding how things evolved. A fruitful discussion ensued. This was a very positive meeting; all participants were satisfied with the final outcome.

Recommendations

Two recommendations were made at the end of this case:

1. The Customer Care Unit should be provided with further training on how to handle such delicate issues and communicate in a more empathetic way with patients and their relatives; and
2. When special circumstances are operating within the hospital environment, such as General Elections, the rules and regulations pertaining to such events should be carefully and effectively communicated to all staff on time to prevent any such unfortunate circumstances in the future.

Outcome

Since the Ministry for Health accepted both recommendations, this case was closed.