Issue 1 – concerns relating to Miss E’s admission in December 2018
11. Miss E complains that the Trust decided not to give her further doses of cyclizine after she accidently sped up the IV that was providing the drug. She states the doctors refused to listen to her concerns about this decision.
12. Miss E also complains the staff ‘gossiped’ about the incident and treated her like an addict. We appreciate this must have been distressing for Miss E.
13. Having reviewed the complaint file, the Trust responses, and information provided by Miss E, we have decided the complaint has not reached us within our legal time limits.
14. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within one year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after this time, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.
15. We consider Miss E became aware of the concerns relating to the Trust’s decision to refuse cyclizine, and not discuss this further with her during her admission in December 2018. We also consider it more likely than not that she became aware the staff ‘gossiped’ about the incident on the same day.
16. Based on this information, we are satisfied the date of awareness for these concerns was December 2018. We note Miss E brought the complaint to us on 11 October 2021, therefore, it did not reach us within the one-year legal time limit.
17. We have discussed this with Miss E to understand the reasons for the delay. She explained she was told by the doctors that if she did not raise a complaint, cyclizine would be put back onto her treatment plan.
18. Having reviewed the information, we understand there was a delay in Miss E complaining to the Trust. We note she initiated the Trust’s complaints process in September 2019.
19. We also acknowledge that prior to this, on the 15 May 2019, Miss E submitted a complaint to us. On the 21 May 2019, we wrote to her explaining that the complaint was not ready for us. This was because she provided us with the Trust’s general complaint’s leaflet and not a final response. We advised Miss E to raise her concerns with the Trust. We can see Miss E contacted the Trust four months later, in September 2019.
20. Miss E said the doctors told her not to raise a complaint, and that if she did this, they would reinstate cyclizine. There is limited evidence for us to confirm whether doctors said this to her. We have reviewed the records and cannot see evidence of this, although we acknowledge Miss E’s recollection.
21. However, even if Miss E was under the impression the medication would be restarted if she did not complain, she made the decision to raise the complaint to us in May 2019. We consider it reasonable for Miss E to have expected the same outcome, whether she raised a complaint with us or with the Trust directly. We also advised her of the need to complain in a timely manner, when we responded to her in May 2019. Despite that, there was a further delay of four months before she complained to the Trust.
22. We therefore consider it reasonable for Miss E to have progressed her complaint to the Trust sooner than she did.
23. Based on the above, we have seen no evidence to justify the delays between December 2018 and September 2019. We therefore find this part of the complaint has not reached us within the legal time limits, and the reasons provided do not justify us setting the time limit aside. We will not consider this complaint further.
Issue two- Concerns relating to facilitating a meeting
24. Miss E also complains the Trust refused to arrange a meeting between her and the doctors that made the decision. We are sorry to hear that this caused Miss E distress.
25. We understand the Trust communicated its decision not to facilitate a meeting in its response dated 25 October 2019.
26. As explained above, Miss E brought the complaint to us on the 11 October 2021. Therefore, the complaint had not reached us within our legal time limits. Miss E explains she was in and out of hospital between April 2021 and October 2021, which meant that she could not progress her complaint.
27. We understand this must have been a difficult time for her and accept that between April 2021 and October 2021 it would not have been practical for Miss E to progress her complaint.
28. We can see from the complaint file that Miss E contacted the Trust on the 25 January 2021 to raise a new complaint about events relating to her admission in January 2021.
29. As such, we have seen no evidence to suggest there were any barriers which prevented Miss E raising these concerns between October 2019 and April 2021, and we have seen she was in a position to raise separate issues with the Trust in January 2021.
30. We are therefore satisfied this part of the complaint falls outside of our time limits, and the reasons for the delay in bringing her complaint to us do not justify that delay. As such, we will not be considering this complaint further.