Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

3. Ms V complains on behalf of the family that when her mother was a patient at the Trust in March and April 2023, it:

• did not do an effective COVID-19 test • discharged her on 1 April 2023 when she was not well enough and without proper nursing care at home • did not investigate an existing heart condition before discharging her • did not observe or monitor her mother on 8 April when she was using oxygen • did not recognise her mother was deteriorating on 8 April or tell the family.

4. Ms V says her mother did not get treatment for COVID-19 and her heart condition and this may have affected her chances of survival. She says the lack of monitoring meant her mother spent several hours struggling to breathe.

5. She says her family have been traumatised and devastated by these events and her mother later died. She says she is unable to grieve and her father’s mental health has got much worse.

6. Ms V wants an independent investigation, for someone at the Trust to lose their job and a financial payment.

8. 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 discussed this with Ms V 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.

9. One of the outcomes Ms V wants is a financial payment. This is something we can potentially achieve if we uphold a complaint.

10. Ms V was unable to say how much money the family thought would resolve the complaint. We explained how we make decisions about payments and the amounts we might recommend if we upheld her complaint.

11. Ms V said the amounts we might recommend are much less than the amount she wants. She wants a much larger payment.

12. Ms V could potentially make a claim for clinical negligence. She told us that if we upheld her complaint, she would take legal action. They had not taken legal advice yet as they wanted to see what the outcome of our investigation would be. She thought legal action was the next step after that.

13. Ms V told us the family could not afford to pay privately for legal action. She was aware that ‘no win no fee’ agreements may be available. She also had a connection to a solicitor who may be able to help, at least with advice or guidance.

14. From our discussions, it is clear Ms V has some desire to take legal action, as she said she would take legal action if we upheld her complaint. She has not told us about any reasons why she could not look into now.

15. Legal action is more likely to achieve the higher levels of payment that she wants. She is still within the time limit to make a legal claim.

16. Once Ms V has taken legal action, she has the right to approach us again if there are any issues that are unresolved. But, the law prevents us from considering disciplinary issues so we would not be able to look into someone at the Trust losing their job.

17. If Ms V needed to return to us after looking into legal action, her complaint would be outside our time limit. We would have to consider if there were grounds to put the time limit to one side. For this reason, Ms V should return to us as soon as possible if legal action cannot achieve the outcomes she wants.

18. We thank Ms V for sharing her concerns with us and hope any legal action she decides to take resolves the complaint for her and the family.

1. We have carefully considered Ms V’s complaint about the treatment and care Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) gave to her mother. We are sorry to hear about her concerns and how much she and her father have been affected by these events.

2. We have decided to take no further action because we think Ms V could take legal action on the matter brought to us.