7. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (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 think there is good reason to.
8. Mr A knew there was a problem in August 2019. We got Mr A’s complaint in August 2023, three years after our time limit. We asked Mr A why he could not complain to us sooner.
9. Mr A says while his complaint goes back to December 2017 but he was not aware he had reason to complain until the growth was found to be cancerous in August 2019. Mr A complained to the Trust seven months later in March 2020. He says he did not complain straightaway because he was caring for Ms B. After she died in December 2019, he and his family were grieving. We recognise this was a difficult time for him.
10. The Trust gave its first response to Mr A’s complaint in August 2020. Mr A contacted the Trust again with further concerns three months later in November. By this time, his complaint was already outside our time limit. There was a delay of 11 months because the Trust did not send its second response to Mr A until October 2021. In this response, the Trust invited Mr A for a meeting.
11. Mr A contacted the Trust three months later in January 2022, saying he needed time to make a list of questions to discuss at the meeting. He sent this to the Trust ten months later in November. The meeting took place in November and the Trust sent its final response to Mr A in December. There was another delay of eight months before Mr A brought his complaint to us in August 2023.
12. The Trust’s complaint handling caused some of the delay. But, when it sent its second response Mr A’s complaint was already out of time.
13. We looked at his reasons for the delay in giving his list of questions to the Trust and the delay in bringing his complaint to us after he received the Trust’s final response.
14. Mr A says he had hip replacement surgery in June 2022 and other health problems. He also says he did not have an advocate for a time and this is why he was not able to give his questions to the Trust sooner.
15. We understand Mr A’s hip surgery and his health problems are important, but we cannot see how this stopped him from giving his questions to the Trust sooner. Mr A was without an advocate for two months, but he still had enough time to make a list of questions to discuss at the meeting. It was eight months between the Trust’s response in October 2021 and Mr A’s hip surgery in June 2022. We think Mr A could have made a list of questions to discuss at the meeting sooner than he did.
16. There was a further delay of eight months between the Trust’s final response in December 2022 and Mr A bringing his complaint to us in August 2023. Mr A says he had prostate surgery in April 2023 and was without an advocate again for one month. Mr A said he needed time to look at the information again and wanted to ask the Trust for Ms B’s medical records.
17. We acknowledge Mr A faced a challenging time due to his own physical health issues. We recognise there were times when he found making a complaint difficult and complaining was less of a priority than recovering. While we appreciate Mr A had difficulties with the advocacy service, most of the time he did have support from an advocate. We do not think these are strong issues that stopped him from bringing his complaint to us sooner.
18. Mr A did not need Ms B’s medical records before making his complaint. By this time, he had three responses from the Trust and had attended one meeting. This was enough information to help him fill in our complaint form. Mr A contacted us in 2021 and was aware of our time limit. We think it would have been reasonable for him to bring us his complaint soon us after receiving the Trust’s final response in December 2022.
19. We recognise how important this complaint is to Mr A and how this is not the outcome he was hoping for. Although our decision may be disappointing, we hope he is assured that we have carefully considered the reasons for the delay and explained the reasons for our decision clearly.