8. Mrs R complained to us on 9 March 2022. The Law says a person must 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. We have discussed this with Mrs R to understand the reasons why she did not complain earlier. We have also considered the time the Trust took to respond to Mrs R.
9. The date on which the Trust incorrectly administered eye cream was July 2020. This is also the date Mrs R became aware she had reason to complain, because she immediately knew staff had not administered the cream correctly into her eyes. Mrs R brought her complaint to us in March 2022, which means this issue is out of time by approximately eight months.
10. Mrs R says the Trust incorrectly administered the eye drops in September 2020. We understand Mrs R was aware of the problem at that point. Mrs R brought her complaint to us in March 2022, which means this issue is out of time by approximately six months.
11. Mrs R says the Trust failed to inform the new care home about an eye clinic appointment in November 2020. Mrs R knew about this failing in November because the eye clinic informed about her missed appointment on 26 November. Mrs R brought her complaint to us in March 2022, which means this issue is out of time by approximately four months.
12. Mrs R says she is more than 80 years old and she experienced severe pain and discomfort which prevented her from complaining immediately. She says she suffered depressive episodes due to these issues. She says she was also involved in a rehabilitation programme at the time which was affected by the events of her complaint. Mrs R says she was not mentally ready to complain immediately.
13. Mrs R formally complained in May 2021 but the Trust did not respond until September 2021. She complained again in November 2021 and the Trust issued its final response in February 2022. The Trust took a total of around nine months to provide responses after receiving an advocate’s complaint letters on behalf of Mrs R.
14. We have considered the time the Trust took to look into the complaint. It took around four months to reply on each occasion. Mrs R also told us the Trust appointed a new chief executive which delayed responses as they wanted to review all documentation.
15. We recognise a new chief executive might have made some difference to that time frame. However, the total time is not unusually long for an organisation to send two formal responses to a complaint. It is also not as long as the ten-month delay there seems to be from Mrs R’s first date of knowledge (July 2020) and her raising the complaint formally (May 2021). Overall, the time for the Trust’s complaint handling is not a strong reason to put the time limit to one side.
16. Mrs R says she raised verbal complaints about her treatment from July 2020 to November 2020 and asked for these to be recorded.
17. We asked Mrs R the dates of these complaints, but she could not recall the precise dates. Mrs R sent us all documentation relating to this. When we reviewed the documentation Mrs R sent, we could not find any evidence or written confirmation of her verbal complaints.
18. We raised this issue with the Trust and asked for a copy of the complaint file. We could not find any evidence relating to her verbal complaints.
19. We do not dispute Mrs R’s account about this and have considered it carefully. We consider her verbal complaints could account for some of the delay until November 2020, or shortly afterwards. However, this does not give a good explanation for the further delays from the start of 2021 until May 2021, when Mrs R raised it formally.
20. We consider Mrs R could have raised the complaint formally sooner than May if she was not getting a reply to her informal attempts. The fact she was raising it informally from July to November 2020 shows she was likely capable of raising it formally sooner than she did. She also could have involved an advocate to support her with that.
21. We accept Mrs R says the reason she did not bring her complaint earlier was because she was unwell and struggling with her health. We understand Mrs R was going through rehabilitation at the time (since 2018), so she was still being proactive in other matters relating to her care.
22. We understand there was not a significant change in Mrs R’s personal health at the time she lodged a formal complaint. Therefore, it does not seem there was a significant barrier to her bringing the complaint earlier. This also supports the view she could have complained earlier, perhaps with the help of an advocate.
23. We have considered all evidence of the Trust’s complaints process and Mrs R’s explanations for the delay. The complaint is outside our 12-month time limit and we cannot see reasonable grounds for the delays. Based on this, we have not seen strong reasons to put our time limit to one side.
24. It is clear Mrs R has been through a difficult time. We were very sorry to hear about what happened and about the pain she has suffered. We hope this statement clearly explains our decision and does not bring Mrs R any further upset.