Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

4. Miss I complains the Trust failed to treat an infection her mother got after doing surgery in August 2022. Miss I says the Trust: • gave incorrect advice about weight bearing after the surgery • did not prescribe antibiotics after finding an infection in her mother’s leg • did not provide good nursing care • did not put a note on her mother’s door that she was passing away • changed the wound VAC machine to one that was not working.

5. Miss I believes the Trust’s actions caused her mother’s death and this caused her and her family distress due to the unexpected bereavement. She wants an apology and service improvements.

6. Mrs I had a fall in late August 2022 and was taken to the Trust’s emergency department (ED). The Trust found Mrs I had a fracture in her ankle and operated on it.

7. The Trust discharged Mrs I on 20 September with a plan to review her in the fracture clinic in two weeks to change her plaster to a full cast. The Trust was then to review her in six weeks for an X-ray and she would be discharged to the physiotherapy team.

8. The Trust reviewed Mrs I on 30 September. It found she had an infection in the middle and side of her ankle. It did an X-ray and found everything was satisfactory. The Trust said it started Mrs I on antibiotics at this time but Miss I told us her mother was not given any antibiotics.

9. The Trust reviewed Mrs I again on 10 October. It found a severe infection in her ankle and admitted her to hospital. The Trust operated to remove metal from Mrs I’s ankle and reset the fixation. Mrs I died in November.

11. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of a reason to complain. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to.

12. Based on the evidence we have seen Miss I was first aware she had a reason to complain in October 2022. This means that to be within our time limit she needed to come to us with her complaint by October 2023.

13. Miss I brought her complaint to us on 17 December 2023. This means her complaint is outside of our time limit by over two months. We have gone on to consider any delays in bringing the complaint to us and the time the Trust took to handle the complaint, to see if we have reason to put our time limit to one side.

14. Miss I first contacted the Trust to raise a complaint on 17 July. This is nine months after she knew she wanted to complain. When we asked Miss I the reason for her delay in making her complaint she told us it was due to waiting for an autopsy in November and the funeral in December. Along with this she told us she was dealing with the bereavement.

15. We understand this time was distressing for Miss I and her family but there was a long delay of nine months between the events and making a complaint to the Trust.

16. The Trust sent a complaint response on 25 October. This means it took the Trust three months to investigate Miss I’s complaint. This does not seem to be the reason why Miss I could not bring her complaint to us sooner. Miss I brought her complaint to us two months later on 17 December.

17. We understand it was a difficult time for Miss I and she went through much distress. Unfortunately, as her complaint is outside of our time limit, we must look at whether the reasons for the delays are enough to put our time limit to one side.

18. Having considered her reasons for the delays and the time taken for the Trust’s complaint handling to be completed, we have not seen good enough reasons to set our time limit aside. This is because there was a long gap between when Miss I became aware she had a reason to complain and in making her complaint to the Trust. She then took another two months to bring the complaint to us.

19. We understand Miss I has been through a very difficult experience but it is important that we act within the law. We regret any upset this decision may cause. We hope this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering the complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Miss I’s complaint about Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are sorry to hear about what happened to her mother, Miss I, and can see from what she told us that this was a difficult and distressing time for her.

2. Based on the evidence we have seen, Miss I’s complaint falls outside of our 12month time limit. After looking at the evidence that Miss I gave us and her reasons for the delay in bringing her complaint to us, we have not seen strong enough reasons to allow us to put our time limit to one side.

3. We are sorry for any further distress this may cause and hope our explanation below helps to explain why we cannot take further action.