London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust

3. Mrs E complains the Trust made a series of mistakes when she gave birth to her daughter in July 2020.

4. Mrs E says those mistakes have caused her to have bladder pain and numbness in the right side of her body. She has pain in her back and ribs and she is sometimes unable to control her bladder. She says she is unable to carry her child and do the daily things she used to do. She says her right hand still goes numb due to the way the midwife put the cannular in. She says she is depressed as a result, and this has affected the rest of her family.

5. By bringing this complaint to us, Mrs E is looking for an apology and compensation.

6. The Health Commissioners Act 1993 (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 to do so.

7. Our time limit begins from the date a person becomes aware they have reason to complain.

8. Mrs E was aware of what she felt were failings at the time of her daughter’s birth, so we would consider her date of knowledge to be July 2020.

9. We would have expected Mrs E to bring her complaint to us by July 2021.

10. Mrs E raised a complaint with the Trust on 27 January 2021. The Trust provided a response on 15 April 2021. A local resolution meeting was held on 14 September 2021. A further final response was received in November 2021. The complaint was then brought to us on 9 February 2022.

11. Mrs E took six months to take her original complaint to the Trust. We can understand some level of delay in raising her complaint to the Trust, as Mrs E was a new mum recovering from the birth.

12. We spoke with Mrs E on 17 and 27 October 2022 to discuss the reasons for the delay in bringing the complaint to us after the final response was issued in November 2021.

13. Mrs E said she had not known what to do following the birth of her daughter until her social worker offered to help her to make the complaint to the Trust. She raised the complaint in January 2021.

14. We then discussed the reason for the delay in bringing the complaint to us following the second final response, issued in November 2021.

15. Mrs E said she had been unsure of what to do next and had asked her social worker for help. Her social worker told her that, if she remained unhappy, the letter had to be signed and posted to us.

16. Mrs E said there were delays because her social worker had COVID-19 and had been on leave.

17. We recognise Mrs E has had a difficult time, both during and since the birth of her second child.

18. We can see Mrs E needed help in initially raising her complaint. Her social worker helped her.

19. Both the first and second final responses provided her with the information about where to take her complaint if she remained unhappy, and they included our contact details.

20. We understand Mrs E waited until the Trust’s complaint handling was complete, but we have not seen any barriers preventing Mrs E from bringing her complaint to us sooner.

21. There were two delays in the complaint process. Mrs E lodged the complaint six months after the time limit for doing so. We do not consider there to be any reasons to set aside the time limit.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs E’s complaint about London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (the Trust). We have decided the complaint falls outside of our time limit.

2. We are sorry to hear of the upsetting time Mrs E had when giving birth to her child in July 2020. We understand Mrs E continues to have trouble following this experience.