Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

2. Miss N complains about the Trust’s care and treatment between 22 February and May 2022. She says:

• after surgery for a slipped disc the Trust did not provide her with suitable physiotherapy treatment in hospital • after being discharged she was left on her own without any physiotherapy for three weeks • the Trust wrongly told her to sit in a chair which resulted in her having seizures.

3. Miss N says she is no longer able to walk or even stand.

4. She wants service improvements and a financial payment of between £75,000 and £135,000.

7. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has the option to take legal action, unless we think this is unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Miss N 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 in to.

8. Miss N says the overall standard of care she had from the Trust was not anywhere near a standard she would expect. She says she was given poor advice from the physiotherapist about her aftercare and her overall treatment resulted in her being unable to walk. She feels this could be permanent. She is claiming the Trust was negligent.

9. She wants a financial payment of more than £75,000 for what has happened to her.

10. Legal action could provide the financial payment she wants. She could make a clinical negligence claim to get this. While Miss N could not make a legal claim specifically to get service improvements, these could be achieved as a by-product of legal action.

11. We discussed the option of taking legal action with Miss N and there were no obstacles to stop her from doing this. We have not anything to tell us it would be unreasonable for her to explore this route.

12. We are grateful to Miss N for taking the time to tell us about the difficult experiences she had. What happened must have been very difficult for her.

1. We have carefully considered Miss N’s complaint about Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We think Miss N could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us. We are sorry to hear about the events that led to her complaint and the obvious distress these caused her.