Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

3. Ms A says the Trust’s outpatient care and treatment on 6 April 2023 was negligent.

4. Ms A says the Trust: • did not diagnose her with fungal pneumonia • did not prescribe the correct treatment • did not change her prescribed inhalers • referred her for chest physiotherapy that she says could have made her condition worse.

5. Ms A says the Trust’s failure to diagnose her with fungal pneumonia put her life at risk and she had to spend eight days in hospital abroad (where she is from). She says the Trust’s failure to diagnose her meant she had to get treatment in her home country because she could not afford to get a second opinion privately in England.

6. Ms A says the delay in getting the correct treatment caused her to get allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), an allergic reaction affecting the lungs and making it difficult to breather. Aspergillus mould is a fungus and the spores are found in the air we breathe but do not normally cause illness. Ms A thinks getting ABPA led to a shortened life expectancy.

7. Ms A says when she was referred for chest physiotherapy, the Trust put her life at risk and it could have made the bleeding from her lungs worse.

8. Ms A says the Trust’s actions caused her to experience severe anxiety and depression, that she now needs medication for. She says she cannot enjoy her life because she feels she is in a nightmare and an unfortunate event could happen in the future.

9. Ms A would like the Trust to admit its mistakes, apologise and make a financial payment to her of between £70,000 and £80,000.

10. Ms A says she has had mild asthma since 2016 and her GP prescribed ventolin and clenil modulite inhalers on repeat prescription.

11. In February 2023, Ms A began coughing up blood. She says she attended her GP Practice quite a few times between 18 February and 15 May.

12. On 24 March her GP referred her to the Trust’s rapid access chest clinic. On 29 March it did a CT scan on Ms A’s lungs. On 6 April the Trust saw Ms A as an outpatient.

13. Ms A says the consultant wrongly diagnosed her with chronic bronchiectasis, an inflammatory disorder associated with the production of excess mucus. She says the consultant prescribed carbocisteine, a medicine which makes phlegm less sticky and easier to cough up and referred her for chest physiotherapy.

14. The Trust’s complaint response says the consultant found her asthma was well controlled. They did blood and sputum tests to check for infection. The Trust says blood tests showed Ms A’s antibodies were in normal range and her white blood cell count was normal. This shows that at the time there was no sign of infection or ABPA.

15. On 18 May a hospital in the country where Ms A is from admitted her. Consultants did a bronchoscopy (a test where a thin tube is put down a patient’s windpipe so doctors can view their airways), CT scan, skin prick allergy tests and blood tests. The consultants diagnosed fungal pneumonia and ABPA.

16. The consultants treated Ms A with anti-fungal medications and steroids. They also changed her inhalers. Ms A says they advised her not to do chest physiotherapy for at least three months, as it could start her lung bleeding again. The hospital discharged Ms A on 26 May.

17. Ms A says she is still recovering from the fungal pneumonia. She says the ABPA has shortened her life expectancy. The Trust’s complaint response says it would like to reassure Ms A that ABPA is generally associated with normal life expectancy.

Diagnosis and treatment

20. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has the option to take legal action, unless we think this is unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Ms A to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look into.

21. Ms A says the Trust was medically negligent. She says it did not diagnose or treat her correctly, resulting in her being in hospital abroad and getting ABPA. She says this has affected her quality of life greatly, caused difficulty with breathing, exhaustion, depression and shortening her life expectancy.

22. Ms A can take legal action by making a clinical negligence claim, as the main outcome she is wants is a financial payment for how she says she was affected by what happened.

23. Ms A also wants the Trust to admit what it got wrong and apologise. A court would not normally order this but these outcomes can be achieved as a result of a successful claim. If Ms A does not get what she wants from legal action, she can bring her complaint back to us and we can look at what she had not achieved through legal action.

24. Legal action is not the only way to get a financial payment. If we upheld her complaint, we may suggest a financial payment.

25. Ms A told us she does not know how much money she wants. We sent Ms A an email with our guidance on financial payments and Ms A replied saying she would like £70,000 to £80,000.

26. Ms A did not tell us about anything that would stop her from taking legal action. She says she had already taken legal advice, but stopped this action when she brought her complaint to us. She says she cannot afford to pay for a solicitor but she could get legal advice on a ‘no-win no-fee’ basis if we are not able to look at her case.

27. We thought about everything carefully and we think it is important for Ms A to look into taking legal action. Ms A needs to take legal action as soon as she can as there are time limits to making a legal claim. We do not want to stop her from being able to do this.

28. If Ms A needs to contact us again we would need to look at how far her legal claim progressed and what she has achieved. We also need to consider our time limit so she would need to take legal action as soon as possible. We can only put our one-year time limit to one side if there are good reasons to.

29. We are very sorry to hear about the circumstances which led to Ms A bringing her complaint to us. We understand how important this complaint is to her and that this continues to be a difficult time.

1. We have carefully considered Ms A’s complaint about Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are sorry to hear about the respiratory problems she has experienced and how this has affected her physical and mental health.

2. We have decided to take no further action on Ms A’s complaint because she can take legal action on the issues she has brought to us.