HCRG Care Group

3. Mrs O complains about the care and treatment HCRG provided to Mr A, herself and her family in April 2019. Specifically, she complains that:

• the carer had an unprofessional manner towards the family and Mr A, listened to their conversations and reported them • the carer mistreated Mr A and acted unprofessionally, including refusing to change Mr A’s incontinence pad and pulling his arm aggressively • HCRG did not provide a male carer • HCRG dismissed the family’s concerns.

4. Mrs O says the matters complained about caused her stress and worry, and they caused her relationship with her sister, Ms A, to break down.

5. Mrs O wants HCRG to acknowledge the family’s serious concerns and accept responsibility for the care arrangements. She wants it to change its policies and procedures. She is also seeking compensation of £10,000 for her and her siblings, for the stress and worry caused to them.

6. On 16 October 2018, Mrs O and Ms A took over the role of looking after Mr A. When Mr A came out of hospital in April 2019, Ms A took full control of looking after him. After four days, Ms A was struggling and sought help from HCRG.

7. HCRG provided care for Mr A. The NHS funded the care package from April 2019 to July 2019. HCRG assigned Mr A a carer and a care manager. Due to the family’s concerns regarding the carer, another care company was brought in to support and care for Mr A before he died in August 2019.

8. Mrs O says at the beginning the care HCRG provided was good, but after a short time things started to change. The care and treatment of Mr A and the rest of the family, other than Ms A, got worse. Mrs O says the family had to set up recording devices to gather evidence. Mrs O explained the carer made accusations about the family and made them feel like strangers during a difficult and saddening time.

9. All HCRG communication about Mr A’s care was with Ms A. The siblings had a good relationship, but the relationship broke down over concerns about Mr A’s care. Mrs O says Ms A would not provide information and update them about his health.

10. HCRG staff attended several meetings with Mr A and family members during the period when Mr A was receiving care.

12. The Health Commissioners Act 1993 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 to be a good reason to do. We have discussed this with Mrs O to understand the reasons why she could not raise her complain earlier. We have also considered the time HCRG took to respond to Mrs O’s complaint.

13. Mrs O had reason to complain in April 2019 when she had concerns about her father’s carer. Mrs O first raised her concerns to HCRG in May 2019, but she did not raise a formal complaint to HCRG until 15 June 2020 via an advocacy service. She complained to us on 13 September 2021. Her complaint is one year and five months outside of the time limit for lodging a complaint.

14. We have carefully considered the reasons Mrs O provided for the delay in bringing the formal complaint to HCRG and in turn to us. There was a delay between Mr A’s funeral in September 2019 and Mrs O and her siblings sending a letter to HCRG on 27 February 2020. Mrs O has not provided an explanation for the full period of this delay other than that she went on holiday in November 2019 to relax after all the worry relating to Mr A’s care. She told us her husband died in November 2019, and she was grieving until late February 2020.

15. There was also a delay between 25 May 2021 and 13 September 2021, from when Mrs O received the final response to when she complained to us. Mrs O says the reason for this delay was because the advocacy service told her we had a long waiting list, so she did not rush to make the complaint to us.

16. We recognise Mrs O was coping with a difficult time in her life after losing her husband. We note Mrs O said the carer’s unprofessional manner towards the family affected them, and they want compensation. Mrs O and her siblings also sent a further complaint letter to HCRG on 27 February 2020. We consider Mrs O could have complained earlier than she did with the help of her siblings. She could have also sought help from the advocacy service earlier than she did.

17. We recognise there were also delays on the part of HCRG once the formal complaint had been raised with it. There was a delay of two months from when Mrs O requested the resolution meeting until it took place. A further delay of seven months occurred from the resolution meeting taking place and the final response being sent.

18. In summary, we recognise some of the delays in bringing the complaint to us were outside Mrs O’s control, but the delays were significant. She delayed making a formal complaint to HCRG from May 2019 to June 2020, and from May 2021 to September 2021, between getting the final response and complaining to us. Having considered the length of this delay, and the reasons provided, we do not think there are strong reasons for us to set aside the time limit in this case.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about Health Care Resourcing Group (HCRG). We have decided the complaint falls outside of our 12-month time limit. We have considered all the circumstances of the complaint and the reasons for any delays Mrs O told us about. We have not seen any strong reasons to set aside our time limit.

2. We are sorry to hear about the experience Mrs O, her father (Mr A) and her family had. We recognise she and her family were coping with a difficult and saddening period in their lives. We recognise Mrs O may be disappointed by this decision. We hope this statement will help Mrs O to understand how we reached our decision.