3. Mr N complains about the CCG. He complains between 1 October 2019 and 22 April 2020 Mrs N did not get the continuing healthcare (CHC) funding she was eligible for.
4. Mr N says his family had to fund Mrs N’s care during this period.
5. Mr N is seeking an apology and funding for this period.
7. 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 N and Ms R to understand the reasons why he could not come to us within this time limit. We have also considered the time the CCG took to reply to Mr N.
8. On 4 October 2019, the CCG told Mr N it would not give funding to Mrs N as he had chosen a care home for her that the CCG did not cover.
9. On 18 March 2020, Ms R sent a letter of complaint to the CCG.
10. Mrs N died in April 2020.
11. On 5 August 2020, the CCG replied to the complaint. The CCG directed Mr N and Ms R to us. On 14 July 2021 we received his complaint form.
12. We asked why there was a delay of five months between when Mr N knew the CCG would not give the funding and when he complained to the CCG. Ms R told us Mr N was dealing with Mrs N’s care and getting further advice.
13. We asked why there was a delay of eleven months between when the CCG replied to the complaint and when Mr N came to us. Ms R told us Mrs N died in April 2020 and Mr N was getting a grant of probate so he had authority to deal with the complaint.
14. We have considered this. We accept this was a difficult time for Mr N and some delays were to be expected. It took five months for the CCG to handle the complaint. After this, Mr N had two months to come to our organisation and meet the time limit.
15. There is no requirement to provide a grant of probate when complaining to us. We have seen evidence a complaint was made to the CCG without the grant of probate.
16. The grant of probate is dated March 2021. This is four months before coming to us.
17. Mr N sent his complaint to our organisation without the grant of probate or a form of authority from Ms R. We did not receive a copy of the grant of probate or the form of authority until the end of August 2022.
18. We understand this has been a very stressful time for Mr N. We have considered his reasons for not coming to us within the time limit. We have seen evidence Mr N had an opportunity to come to us sooner than he did. There is a four month gap between the grant of probate being received and bringing his complaint to us. This complaint is out of time by nine months and we will not be taking any further action on it.
1. We have carefully considered Mr N’s complaint about Surrey Heartlands Clinical Commissioning Group (the CCG). The CCG is now called NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board but was a CCG at the time of this complaint so will be called the CCG throughout. We have decided the complaint falls outside of our time limit.
2. We consider that Mr N could have complained to us sooner than he did. We are sorry to hear of the events leading to the complaint. We understand how upsetting it has been for Mr N as he dealt with the care and death of his mother, Mrs N.