By Lewis McBlane

Copyright grampianonline

NHS Grampian has been criticised for missing the 90-day deadline for an “urgent” hip replacement by a year.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) told the health board to apologise to the patient involved, who waited 15 months for the operation.

A report, upholding the complaint, also revealed the operation only happened after the watchdog enquired about the patient’s case.

The SPSO report said a complaint about the long delay was initially made by a sibling of the person involved, who suffered “significant mobility issues and difficulties with day-to-day living”.

Since a pre-assessment appointment took place, the sibling said, the patient was apparently no closer to having the surgery.

After receiving independent advice from a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, the watchdog found that the operation should have been classed as “urgent”.

This means the operation should have been carried out within 90 days.

“We were concerned that A waited 15 months for their surgery and that the surgery only took place after intervention from this office,” the report added.

Despite the health board having apologised for the delay, the SPSO said that the reasons provided were “unreasonable”.

NHS Grampian has a contract with another health board to provide hip operations, the SPSO report said, and an operation elsewhere should have been considered as an option.

The board should also have considered using non-NHS options who are “specialised in filling gaps when there were staffing issues due to staff absences” to enable an operation to happen more quickly.

The watchdog ordered NHS Grampian to apologise to the patient for its “failings” in her care.

It also told the health board to create a “recovery plan” to stop this happening to other patients and urged it to “explore alternative pathways” to manage similar cases.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.