Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

4.Mrs E complains about parts of the care and treatment the Trust gave to her mother, Mrs O, between December 2021 and May 2022. She says the Trust:

• did not provide enough support like medication or therapy • discharged Mrs O to a care home too soon and without a robust care plan in place • did not communicate with Mrs O’s family during her admission.

5.Mrs E tells us that Mrs O’s mental health did not improve during her admission because of the lack of support. Mrs E believes the early discharge and lack of a thorough care plan meant Mrs O’s needs were not met and this led to her premature death. Mrs E explained the Trust’s lack of communication led to distress and frustration due to worrying about her mother. Mrs E added the events have caused her avoidable trauma on top of the grief of losing her mother.

6.Mrs E would like:

• a formal apology from the Trust • acknowledgement of failings • service improvements • 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 Mrs E to understand the circumstances and the outcomes she wants.

9.We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look into.

10.Mrs E explained she felt the lack of care and the Trust’s decision to discharge Mrs O to a care home without a robust care plan, directly contributed to her premature death.

11.Mrs E confirmed she knows the Trust has apologised and made service improvements as a result of her complaint. Mrs E explained she is now looking for a financial payment. She could take legal action to achieve this.

12.Mrs E explained she could not give a specific figure for the amount she wants but confirmed it would be a significant amount.

13.Mrs E told us she has not spoken with any solicitors about the complaint because she thought this would interfere with our investigation and she did not think she could do both. Mrs E said she might not be able to afford to take legal action but she would be open to speaking to some ‘no win no fee’ solicitors to explore this. In line with the law, we would expect this route to be considered before we can say that cost is a barrier to taking legal action.

14.We think it is unlikely that Mrs E has a legal route for her complaint about the lack of communication. But it is not practical for us to only look into the Trust’s communication while Mrs E explores legal action for the main parts of her complaint. This is because the issues are connected, and it would be difficult to separate them.

15.If Mrs E is unable to progress her complaint with a solicitor or legal action does not achieve the outcomes she wants, she can come back to us but there is no guarantee that we will be able to investigate. If she needs to come back to us she should do this quickly, because we are only able to consider complaints that have been brought to us within 12 months of the date when someone knew they had a reason to complain. We can put this time limit to one side if we see there is a good reason for the delay.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs E’s complaint about Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust).

2.We understand the importance of Mrs E’s complaint and the impact the events had on her. We recognise it has been a difficult experience.

3.We are unable to investigate the complaint further because we think Mrs E could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.