Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr L complains about the care and treatment Mrs L received from the Trust between 19 June and 14 November 2019. He states that during this period:

· the Trust failed to provide adequate care and treatment for his wife’s needs · the Trust failed to administer medication on a number of occasions · the Trust did not use appropriate assessments when discharging his wife · the Trust failed to properly communicate with Mr L about his wife’s care and treatment.

4. Mr L says the issues raised have caused him and his wife distress and has affected their mental health and wellbeing.

5. Mr L has requested an apology from the Trust and service improvements to make sure these problems do not happen to other families.

6. Mrs L was cared for by the Trust between 19 June 2019 and 14 November 2019. Mr L is unhappy with the care and treatment she received from the Trust during this time and raised his complaint with the Trust on 20 November 2019. Mr L referred his complaint to us on 22 November 2021.

8. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason. We have discussed this with Mr L to understand the reasons why he could not bring his complaint sooner. We have also considered the time the Trust has taken to respond to Mr L.

9. Mr L knew about the issues with the care and treatment his wife received on 14 November 2019. That means to be within our time limit he needed to bring his complaint to us by November 2020. He brought his complaint to us on 22 November 2021, 12 months out of time.

10. Mr L raised a complaint with the Trust on 20 November 2019, shortly after his wife experienced the issues. On 16 January 2020 the Trust provided a response to his complaint. Mr L made a further complaint in March 2020 which the Trust responded to on 2 June 2020.

11. Mr L found and enlisted the help of a solicitor independently in June 2020. The solicitor referred the complaint to us on 22 November 2021. From the Trust’s final response letter on 2 June 2020 to the complaint being referred to us on 22 November 2021 there is a delay of 17 months.

12. We have explored with Mr L the reasons for the delays in bringing his complaint to us. Mr L explained he contacted the solicitor often but they took a long time referring his complaint to us.

13. The delays caused by the solicitor are unfortunate and we understand Mr L’s frustrations, however, we have not seen any evidence Mr L was actively pursuing his complaint with his solicitor. We are also unable to consider delays caused by third party organisations which may have been avoided if Mr L contacted us sooner.

14. Mr L was able to initially raise his own complaint and he was later able find a solicitor to progress the complaint. It is reasonable to conclude Mr L could have accessed our service at an earlier opportunity. Had Mr L brought his complaint to us when the Trust originally responded in January 2020, or when the Trust provided its final response in June 2020, the complaint would have been in time.

15. We understand the frustrations this issue has caused Mr L and we are sorry for the distress he experienced. Based on the above information we do not consider the reasons provided for the delays are enough to put our time limit to one side and cannot investigate his complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Mr L’s complaint about Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We appreciate Mr L has experienced upset and frustration following his wife’s, Mrs L’s, treatment. We are sorry to learn of his experiences.

2. We have considered the information Mr L has provided and have decided the complaint falls outside of our time limit. We have considered the circumstances and the explanations Mr L has given us. We have not seen strong reasons to put our time limit to one side.