The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

4. Mr L, represented by his ex-partner Ms L, complains about the following aspects of the Trust’s care and treatment in January and February 2022:

• the family could not visit him in hospital for 15 days • staff did not answer the phone and the family did not know where Mr L was for 13 hours after he was admitted • the Trust delayed diagnosing his oral thrush and failed to provide good oral care • nurses did not secure his nasogastric tube (temporary feeding tube) properly • nurses did not help him to sit up when he had his nebuliser • nurses did not help him to move often enough and failed to switch on the pressure relief mattress • doctors prescribed morphine and anti-Parkinson’s medication inappropriately.

5. Mr L says the family experienced significant distress and worry due to the lack of visits and communication. He says the delay in diagnosis of oral thrush, inappropriate medication and lack in nursing care caused him to deteriorate in health so much that he nearly died, was bedbound for six months and was put on end-of-life care.

6. He explains he was on a pureed diet for six months and lost a lot of weight. He says he developed pressure ulcers (bed sores) from the lack of pressure care. He says his family had to find a private physiotherapist to help him stand. He says he had to stay in a nursing home after being discharged from hospital and is very depressed.

7. Mr L wants financial compensation to recognise the physical and mental effect on him, and his family’s distress, as well as reimbursement of the family’s expenses when visiting him at hospital and paying for his private treatment.

9. Ms L gave us more information about how the issues they complain about affected Mr L. She explains during the 15 days when the family could not visit, Mr L had surgery and got sepsis. She says staff did not listen when they reported Mr L’s bed sores and thrush. She says Mr L developed five pressure sores by February while in hospital. She says the nurses did not help him move every two hours, and initially did not give him a pressure-relief mattress. She says when the hospital eventually provided this, the staff did not switch on the mattress for two days. She explains all of this made Mr L weaker.

10. She says the Trust should not have prescribed anti-Parkinson’s medication because Mr L had a bad reaction to this a few years before. She says doctors also prescribed morphine, which made Mr L more confused, lose his appetite and became physically weaker.

11. Ms L says family members had to travel long distances to visit Mr L regularly, which resulted in significant travelling and accommodation expenses.

12. Ms L could take legal action to resolve most of the issues they complain about. She could make a clinical negligence claim against the Trust for poor nursing care, the delay in diagnosis and treatment of oral thrush and inappropriate medication causing financial loss and a deterioration in Mr L’s physical and mental health.

13. Some parts of the complaint, like the poor communication with the family, likely cannot be resolved by a clinical negligence claim because the impact of distress and worry was to the family rather than Mr L himself. Because most of the complaint could be resolved by taking legal action, Mr L and his family should explore this route first.

14. Our work is covered by legislation in the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993. This says we cannot investigate a complaint when there is a legal route available unless it is not reasonable for the complainant to take this route. We must find the complainant has exhausted the legal route and further legal action is not reasonable or possible, before we investigate.

15. Ms L told us the family has now got legal representation and a solicitor is getting medical records from the hospital. She says they are in the early stages of getting a legal settlement.

16. We have asked Ms L how much financial compensation they want. They are uncertain, but she gave us a rough estimate of her family’s travelling and accommodation costs per night. She told us she would be guided by her solicitor on how much they would be able to claim from the Trust.

17. As Ms L has shown there are no barriers to them making a legal claim and they have already started this process, we will not take the complaint further.

18. Once Ms L and her family have finished taking legal action, if there are still outstanding outcomes that they feel have not been achieved, she could come back to us.

19. In those circumstances, we will reconsider her complaint. Because of our 12-month time limit, we reminded Ms L that if she wishes to come back to us, she should do this as soon as possible after finishing the legal process.

20. We would like to thank Mr L and Ms L for coming to us with their concerns. We recognise how much Mr L and his family have been affected by his illness and we hope Mr L’s health will improve in future.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Mr L’s complaint about the Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust).

2. We are sorry to hear about the difficult time Mr L and his family went through while he was in hospital. We understand Mr L’s physical and mental health got worse and this caused his family a great deal of distress and worry.

3. Mr L and his family could take legal action on the matter he has brought to us. For this reason, we are not investigating the complaint further. We have explained below how we have reached this decision.