Letter of complaint
Re: Service provided in Accident and Emergency Dept.
Dear Complaints Officer,
On 10 June at 3pm, I accompanied my 83 year old father to A/E in your hospital. His name is Patrick Brown and he lives with me at the address above. His date of birth is 1 Jan 1930. I am very disappointed because you failed to provide a satisfactory service to him. It took over an hour for him to be triaged. While being triaged and afterwards he asked for pain relief three times but he did not receive it until 6 hours later and no explanation was offered for the delay. A doctor arranged for an Xray of his leg and then discharged him saying that the Xray was negative. But, as he was still in terrible pain the next day, I took him to another hospital that repeated the Xray, found a fracture and admitted him for surgery which he has since had.
To resolve the problem I would like you to explain what happened on that day, why the nurses and doctors did not do more for him and why he was not diagnosed and treated properly. I want you to write to him and apologise. The hospital he had his surgery in is a private one and I have to pay for the follow up physiotherapy. I think you should arrange for free physiotherapy for him.
I look forward to hearing from you and to a resolution of this problem. Please contact me at the above address or by phone.