Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust

4. Mrs B complains about part of the care the Trust’s emergency department (ED) gave to her son in May 2022. She complains the ED team: • made assumptions about her son’s condition without fully exploring what could be causing his severe pain and increased heartrate • did not carry out observations • discharged her son despite his complex medical history and him relying on Entonox (a gas used for pain relief).

5. Mrs B also complains the Trust did not do a Serious Incident investigation until she made her complaint. She questions why no senior clinician was involved in the investigation.

6. C died hours before being discharged. Mrs B thinks the Trust’s actions contributed or caused his death. She says she has experienced significant long-term effects due to the trauma of losing him. She does not think her son’s care was properly investigated, which has added to her distress. Mrs B and her family have experienced depression, anxiety and had to get bereavement counselling.

7. Mrs B wants those involved in her son’s care to be held responsible and an apology for what happened. She wants changes so this does not happen to anyone else. She also wants a financial payment.

Clinical concerns

10. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mrs B to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants.

11. Mrs B said she was concerned that waiting for us to consider her complaint could mean she ran out of time to make a legal claim. She decided to speak to a solicitor before we had investigated her complaint and they are reviewing her case.

12. Mrs B told us she wants to take legal action so there is a full investigation of what happened and while it is not her priority, she wants a financial payment. Mrs B said she would be happy with the amount a solicitor has suggested they could achieve, should the legal case be successful.

13. Mrs B also told us it is important to her for the Trust to be held responsible for what went wrong. She said there has been no apology for what happened. She is also very concerned that this could happen to another family and she wants to make sure the Trust learns from her case.

14. Legal action cannot directly achieve an apology or service improvements, but these are possible as byproducts of a successful legal claim.

15. At this time, we do not think we should look at Mrs B’s complaint as she may be able to achieve some, if not all her outcomes, through legal action.

16. Mrs B can return to us when legal action is complete and she has outstanding issues, or outcomes she wants could not be achieved legally. We cannot look at the same issues a court has examined, but we can consider if there is anything more we may be able to achieve.

17. If Mrs B decides to return to us, we ask that she does this as quickly as possible. This is because we can usually only look at complaints that are raised within 12 months of the person becoming aware of the issue, although we can put our time limit to one side if we feel it is reasonable to.

Serious Incident investigation

18. Mrs B also complains about the Trust’s delay in carrying out a Serious Incident investigation after her son’s death. She has also questioned why no senior doctor was involved in carrying out this investigation.

19. There is no legal route for these concerns, but, we think this part of the complaint is very closely linked to the clinical concerns and the Trust’s investigation may be looked at as part of the legal case.

20. We also think it would be difficult for us to try and look at this part of the complaint separately to the complaint about the clinical care, because the concerns overlap.

21. Should Mrs B return to us after taking legal action, we could look at her complaint about the Trust’s Serious Incident investigation.

22. We thank Mrs B for speaking to us about her complaint and understand this cannot have been easy. We recognise how serious her concerns are and that she wants to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. We hope we have clearly explained why we will not look at her complaint at this time, but how she can come back to us should she wish to.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs B’s complaint about Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). Mrs B told us she has spoken to a solicitor about her concerns. We think she should continue to explore this legal route before we look at her case any further.

2. Mrs B has also complained about how the Trust carried out its Serious Incident investigation. While this concern cannot be resolved by using a legal route, we think the Trust’s investigation may be looked at as part of the legal case about the clinical care. We do not think we should try and look at this issue separately now.

3. For these reasons, we have closed the complaint. We thank Mrs B for bringing her complaint to us. We are sorry to hear of the very sad circumstances of her complaint and understand she has serious concerns about the care the Trust gave to her son, C. We offer our sincere condolences to Mrs B and her family for their loss.