NHS Forth Valley have been ordered to apologise after they “failed to reasonably assess” a patient’s hearing loss, resulting in it becoming permanent.

The health board came under scrutiny following a complaint which detailed a patient’s visit to an urgent care centre with sudden hearing loss in their right ear.

The complainant’s hearing loss became permanent, but they felt that this could have been avoided if they had received the right care.

A report published by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) upheld the patient, known as C’s, claims.

An investigation by the SPSO found that NHS Forth Valley’s assessment of the complainant was “unreasonable.”

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They stated: “While a clinical assessment was undertaken, a clinical hearing assessment was not, which meant that the cause of C’s acute hearing loss was not ascertained.

“This could have led to alternate treatment options. The board also failed to provide reasonable advice on what to do if C’s symptoms should continue after five days.

“The board’s response did not reasonably reflect the records available, and their investigation did not identify the failing in C’s care.

"We found that the board's assessment of C was unreasonable."

Throughout the complaint, the SPSO backed the initial claim that the permanent hearing loss could have been avoided.

The ombudsman has made recommendations for NHS Forth Valley to follow, firstly by ordering an apology to be made to the complainant.

Their report continued: “Apologise to C for failing to reasonably assess C’s hearing loss and provide appropriate care and treatment.”

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In addition, the SPSO have laid out change that they want to see to prevent this from happening again.

They stated: “Guidance is available to staff which provides a localised and helpful pathway as to the action to take when a patient presents with sudden hearing loss.

“Practitioners delivering the out-of-house/primary care emergency centre service have an appropriate level of training to assess patients presenting with sudden acute hearing loss.

“Reponses to complaints are accurate, identify failings when they occur and seek to take learning from what happened to make similar failings less likely to occur.”

NHS Forth Valley have been told to provide the SPSO with evidence that they have brought these changes into effect.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley added: “We are sorry that the care and treatment provided on this occasion fell below the high standards we aim to deliver.

“We have apologised to the patient and have taken action to address the recommendations in the report to help prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.”

The full report can be found at spso.org.uk.