Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs A complains the Trust allowed her husband’s surgery to go ahead on 17 January 2020 despite him telling staff he had developed symptoms of a cold and had been breathless in the days prior to the surgery. She complains that staff did not record this information and, if it had, the surgery would have been cancelled, meaning her husband would have survived.

4. Mrs A says the actions of the Trust resulted in the death of her husband. She considers that if the Trust had taken into account Mr A’s overall health, and that he had developed symptoms of a cold before his surgery, the surgery would not have gone ahead. She says she has been left devastated by the sudden loss of her husband and she has lost faith in the care the Trust can provide, in relation to her own health conditions.

5. Mrs A seeks acknowledgement and an apology from the Trust for its failings. She also seeks service improvements and financial compensation.

7. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mrs A to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

8. There is a legal route available to Mrs A. In discussion with her, she confirmed she has instructed solicitors who have accepted her case and have been in contact with the Trust. She seeks compensation as the outcome to her complaint and this is something she can achieve through legal action. She explained she also wants the Trust to acknowledge what went wrong, for it to apologise, and improve its services. These actions may not be directly achievable through the courts, but they could still happen as a result of a successful legal claim.

9. If Mrs A remains unhappy following legal action, has outstanding issues or outcomes she has been unable to achieve through the courts, she can return to us. However, we cannot consider issues a court has examined.

10. If Mrs A is unable to proceed with the legal route and wants us to consider her complaint again, she can also contact us. It is important Mrs A approaches us as soon as possible. This is because we can usually only look at complaints that are raised within 12 months of a person being aware of the issue, although we can sometimes put our time limit to one side if we feel this is reasonable.

11. We thank Mrs A for bringing her complaint to us and for speaking to us about this in detail. We recognise this will have been difficult for her.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We consider Mrs A could take legal action, and she has confirmed she is currently pursuing this. For this reason, we will not take this complaint any further.

2. We recognise these events have been very difficult for Miss A and we are sorry to hear of the impact on her and her family. We consider legal action may provide the main outcome she seeks. If she is unable to achieve any of the outcomes she seeks through the legal process, she can return to us without delay to ask us to consider her complaint.