University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr E complains about the care and treatment of his mother, Mrs I, in September 2020. She died while she was a patient at the Trust.

4. Mr E complains that:

· his mother fell while unsupervised

· he was unable to speak to his mother on the phone before her death as the staff took her phone off her

· a nurse at the Trust caused his mother to die by upsetting her as she had a weak heart

5. Mr E says the fall caused his mother to suffer a nosebleed. He also says that his mother’s heart stopped because a nurse upset her, causing her to die. He was also unable to speak to his mother before she died.

6. Mr E wants financial remedy.

7. Mr E’s mother was admitted to the Trust in September 2020 for a respiratory chest infection, and she required antibiotics.

8. Mr E says his mother was a fall risk. He says she even fell over in front of the paramedics who were taking her to hospital. He also says she had her arm in a sling from a previous fall at home. He believes she should have been assessed as a fall risk when admitted to the Trust.

9. Mr E says he telephoned the ward to speak to his mother. He says during this call his mother began screaming his name and then the phone was taken from her by a nurse. Mr E says his mother must have wanted to tell him something, but she was not given the chance to by the nursing staff at the Trust. He tells us he did not speak to his mother again before she died.

10. Mr E says the next day he was contacted by the Trust. It explained to him that his mother suffered a fall while unsupervised. Mr E says he was told several weeks later that she was found on the bathroom floor with her nose bleeding.

11. His mother was scheduled for a CT scan to investigate if any injury was caused by the fall. However, she was found unresponsive in bed the following day. A coroner has confirmed the cause of death as ‘1(A) - lower respiratory tract infection’ and ‘2 - Ischemic Heart Disease, Atrial Fibrillation.’

14. The Health Service Commissioner Act (HSCA) says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mr E to understand his circumstances and the outcomes he wants.

15. In September, we discussed with Mr E the outcomes he wants. We explained the severity of injustice scale and financial remedy we may recommend if we were to uphold the complaint.

16. Mr E said he was not satisfied with the scale of remedy we can recommend. He felt a solicitor could provide a larger financial remedy. He therefore wants to seek legal advice.

17. He asked if we could consider his case at the same time. We confirmed this was not possible.

18. We agreed to close his complaint at this stage while he gets legal advice. We explained that if he is unsuccessful in obtaining legal representation, he should return to us without delay due to the time limit to bring his complaint. He confirmed he would do so.

19. We therefore do not think it is appropriate to consider Mr E’s complaint at this stage. This is because Mr E feels alternative legal remedy would be the most appropriate option for him to recover a larger sum of money.

20. If Mr E does come back to us, we will need to discuss what he is hoping to achieve, as it is likely we cannot achieve the outcomes he is currently seeking. Mr E should come back to us promptly, as we also have a time limit for considering complaints. The HSCA says complaints should be made to us within a year of someone becoming aware of the problem, unless there is a good reason why this could not occur.

21. We recognise the severity of the incident Mr E complains about. We are so sorry for the circumstances which led him to complain. We sincerely hope his legal claim can resolve the matters we have not been able to consider.

1. We have carefully considered Mr E’s complaint about University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are sincerely sorry to hear about the circumstances which led him to complain.

2. We acknowledge the distress Mr E is suffering and thank him for bringing his complaint to us. Mr E has informed us he wants to seek legal advice on the matter that he has brought to us. This means we are unable to consider his complaint further at this stage.