The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

4. Ms O complains about the Trust’s care and treatment in April 2023.

5. Ms O complains she was not given painkillers or water when she asked for them and she was put in a room by herself and no one came to see her until the next morning. She says she was in a lot of pain because she did not have painkillers and she had to struggle to walk to the sink to be sick.

6. Ms O says she was scared and frightened because she was left alone and ignored. She says she was very dehydrated until she saw the doctor the next day. She says she was also taken to a resuscitation part of A&E and later moved to another Trust for treatment for a blood clot. She says this has affected her mental health and she now has depression and anxiety.

7. Ms O wants a financial payment.

8. Ms O was admitted to A&E with right flank pain (between the rib cage and the hip bone) and high blood pressure. She attended as an emergency patient.

9. Ms O was put in a room by herself and was not given water or painkillers when she asked for them.

10. The next day, Ms O was given an intravenous fluid line (into the vein). Fluid and anti-sickness medication was given at 4.23am and 4.25am but no pain medication was given.

11. At 6.06am Ms O was given oral morphine (a strong painkiller) to help manage her pain.

12. A doctor saw Ms O at 8.33am and she was given paracetamol at 9.32am.

13. That morning Ms O was rushed to the resuscitation department and moved to another Trust because she had a blood clot in her right kidney.

16. When we spoke to Ms O she explained that although the Trust apologised for what it did wrong she did not think it had gone far enough to acknowledge how she felt during her time in the hospital and how this affected her wellbeing. She says she wants a financial payment for the distress she experienced but she did not know how much she wanted.

17. We sent Ms O our severity of injustice scale so she could let us know what level of payment she wanted.

18. The scale is published with our guidance on financial remedy. It has six levels and helps us decide how much someone has been affected by what happened and the amount we think is correct to put this right.

19. Ms O felt her complaint was at level two or three on the scale.

20. From the evidence we have seen, we agree that Ms O’s complaint falls within level two of the scale. This is because Ms O’s experience was for a short time and was a one-off incident.

21. Information from the Trust shows it admits that things went wrong in the care it gave to Ms O. It apologised for this and has explained what actions it has taken to make sure this does not happen again. It says it is looking into nursing and medical staffing levels in the department as the demand has now changed. It also says the senior sisters are completing work on ‘going back to basics’ which includes making sure patients have enough pain relief and are given food and drink when they are able to have it. It is completing daily audits to check if patients who have pain on arrival are given pain relief and to see if the pain relief has worked. It says mistakes in this practice will be communicated to the member of staff.

22. The Trust has accepted what it did wrong and has taken positive action to stop this happening again. We think it could do more to put right the distress of Ms O’s experience.

23. Ms O wants a financial payment and because her complaint falls within level two of our scale, we think a payment of between £100 and £450 is appropriate.

24. We contacted the Trust to discuss Ms O’s complaint and the possibility of reaching a resolution by it agreeing to make a payment to her. We explained we thought a payment of £200 would be appropriate.

25. The Trust admitted that Ms O was seen by a doctor in a timeframe that was below their expected standards, it admitted the delay in giving her pain medication and it admitted it had not given Ms O a drink for over 12 hours.

26. The Trust agreed to resolve Ms O’s complaint by paying her £200. Ms O is happy with this and accepts it as a resolution to her complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Ms O’s complaint about the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are sorry to hear about Ms O’s experience and the pain and distress she experienced.

2. Ms O says she wants a financial payment from the Trust.

3. The Trust has agreed to make a payment and Ms O has accepted this.