11. 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. We discussed this with Dr L to understand the reasons why he did not come to us sooner. We also considered the time the Trust took to reply to his complaint.
12. Dr L knew there was a problem in September 2021. This means to be inside our 12-month time limit he needed to bring his complaint to us by August 2022. We received the complaint on 13 September 2022, making the complaint five weeks outside of our time limit.
13. Dr L complained to the Trust on 5 October 2021. This is one month after he knew he had a reason to complain. Dr L did not delay in making his complaint to the Trust.
14. Dr L got a final response from the Trust on 18 February 2022. The Trust told Dr L he could escalate the complaint to us if he was unhappy with the outcome. The Trust also told Dr L that he had to complain to us within 12 months of the date he became aware of the need to complain.
15. The complaints process with the Trust took five months. Dr L could not bring his complaint to us until the process was finished.
16. Dr L complained to us on 13 September 2022. This means there was a seven-month delay in Dr L bringing his complaint to us after he got the Trust’s final response. We considered if there were any reasons why he may have been unable to contact us sooner.
17. On 23 February Dr L emailed the Trust to challenge their reply. The Trust responded by telling Dr L he could bring his complaint to us if he was unhappy. The Trust also said that Dr L could explain why he disagreed with its response, and it could give further information.
18. On 28 February Dr L emailed the Trust to give further information about why he was unhappy with the outcome of the complaint. Records show the Trust said it had nothing further to add and he should take his complaint to us if he was still unhappy.
19. On 17 March POhWER, the advocacy service Dr L used when making his complaint to the Trust, emailed Dr L to let him know his case would be transferred to Voiceability (another advocacy service). A follow up email from POhWER states, ‘Following our conversation, I will be closing your case with us. I am glad you got a great outcome through our support’. This suggests Dr L had finished his complaint with the Trust by 17 March and was happy with the outcome.
20. On 25 July Dr L tried to raise his complaint with the Trust again. On 26 July, the Trust told Dr L he had already raised this complaint and had a final response. The Trust also told Dr L he had challenged its response and it had told him it had nothing more to add. The Trust told Dr L that if he wished to escalate his complaint, he should contact us. The response included a leaflet with more information about us.
21. On 15 August Dr L contacted Voiceability to help him with making a complaint to us. Voiceability allocated Dr L an advocate on 26 August and a phone call was arranged for 9 September to discuss the complaint. Dr L sent his complaint to us on 13 September.
22. Dr L said the reason for the delay between him getting the final response from the Trust was because his advocacy service changed. The email exchange with POhWER shows that when they ended their service Dr L was happy with the outcome of his complaint. We have seen no evidence he showed he wanted to complain to us at that time.
23. On 5 April 2023 we spoke to a representative from Voiceability. It confirmed that Dr L did not contact it until 12 August 2022. This suggests the change in advocacy services did not cause any delays in Dr L raising a complaint with us between 18 February and 12 August 2022.
24. Dr L says his mental health was another reason he was unable to complain to us sooner. Dr L says his new medication did not reach its ideal dosage until the end of 2022, and that he was not stable enough to complain earlier in 2022. Despite this Dr L responded to the Trust’s complaint response in February and March 2022, which shows he was able to raise a complaint sooner. Dr L also attempted to take his complaint back to the Trust in July 2022.
25. The progress notes from Dr L’s medical records show that during 2022 he sent several complaints to a variety of organisations. This suggest that despite his mental health struggles, Dr L was capable of making complaints. A note from 22 March 2022 shows that Dr L discussed his complaint against the Trust with his caseworker and said he did not think he would continue the complaint.
26. A note from Dr L’s assessment on 19 January 2022 shows he did not have a job and he planned to spend his time writing complaints. A note from Dr L’s safety plan from 29 June 2022 shows that despite issues with his mental health, he had increased the number of complaints he had made to a number of different organisations.
27. Based on the available evidence we cannot say the change of advocacy services was the cause of the delay. We also cannot say that Dr L’s mental health stopped him from making a complaint to us sooner.
28. It is clear it has been a difficult time for Dr L and we understand how much this complaint means to him. Overall, we do not think Dr L’s reasons are enough to put the time limit to one side.
29. We thank Dr L for bringing his complaint to us and we hope this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering it further.