7. We must consider the time limit in every case before deciding to investigate a complaint. For health complaints, the law says that a person must bring their complaint to us within a year from the day they first became aware that they had a reason to complain. We call this the date of knowledge. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason. We discussed this with Mr N to understand the reasons why he could not complain sooner. We also considered the time the Trust took to respond to Mr N.
8. Mr N’s complaint is twofold. In Mr N’s complaint form he says he became aware of a problem on 25 July 2019. This was in relation to incorrect information recorded at an appointment. Mr N complained to the Trust on 8 August 2019. The Trust replied on 27 September 2019. To be within our time limit he should have brought his complaint to us by 25 July 2020, but he did not until 21 April 2021. Therefore, this complaint is nine months out of time.
9. On 10 October 2019, Mr N raised further issues in relation to the Trust’s decision not to amend or delete medical records. The Trust replied on 10 December 2019. We consider this to be the date of knowledge for this issue. Mr N should have complained to us by 10 December 2020. Our time limit applies here because he did not complain to us until 21 April 2021. Therefore, this aspect of his complaint is around four and a half months out of time. We considered Mr N’s explanation for why he could not complain sooner than 21 April 2021.
10. Mr N told us he was unable to complain to us sooner because he was waiting for the Trust’s final response. He explained he felt like ‘just giving up because of all the bureaucratic red tape’. Mr N has not indicated to us there was any delay because of health or personal difficulties. We asked Mr N to provide further information, but he declined.
11. In our consideration, we can see local resolution by the Trust does not account for the complaint being out of time. The Trust first responded to Mr N on 27 September 2019. This is seven weeks after he raised his first complaint. The Trust then took two months to address the further concerns he raised on 10 October 2019. Mr N did not write back to the Trust until November 2020, rather than complaining to us.
12. We think he could have raised his complaint with us much earlier than he did, and his complaint would have been within our one-year time limit. The sole reason for the delay in coming to us was because Mr N waited for several months before engaging again with the Trust, when his complaint was ready for us. We consider this was not a good enough reason for not coming to us sooner. Had Mr N contacted us, as prompted by the Trust in its initial response, or referred to our website, he would have been aware of the 12-month time limit in bringing his complaints to us. The fact he chose to wait for a final response from the Trust on further issues does not change anything. Based on the circumstances we are not persuaded the reasons were enough to prevent Mr N from enquiring or submitting his complaint for us to consider. Having weighed up all the available evidence, we can see there were opportunities to bring his complaint to us sooner.
13. It is clear from Mr N’s account this has been an extremely annoying and frustrating time. We appreciate why he did not think about complaining at the time. Unfortunately, that is not a strong enough reason for putting our time limit to one side.