Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr E complains the Trust’s management of his chronic pain in June 2022 was poor. He says the Trust failed to consider all the options available to manage his pain and continued to insist it could only be managed through pain relief and physiotherapy. Mr E got a second opinion at another hospital and his pain is now being managed with steroid injections and different anti-inflammatory medication.

4. Mr E told us he repeatedly raised concerns that the method offered by the Trust was not working. He told us the pain was unbearable and affected every part of his life. He could not sleep, eat or drink.

5. He would like the Trust to explain why it did not consider alternative options. He would also like an apology and a payment of £10,000 or more.

6. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (the law) says we cannot investigate a complaint where the complainant could achieve the outcome they want by taking legal action, unless we think it is not reasonable for them to do this. This makes sure that we do not interfere with matters that a court is responsible for.

7. When Mr E told us a solicitor had agreed to take on his case, we explained that in line with the law we cannot look into a complaint at the same time. We explained we would close our complaint.

8. If Mr E has any outstanding issues that a court is unable to achieve, he can bring the complaint back to us. We will decide whether we can look at his complaint further at that stage.

9. We ask that Mr E takes into consideration our time limit, as the law says a complaint must be made to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We can consider putting this limit to one side, but only if we think there are strong reasons to.

10. We wish Mr E all the best for the future and are sorry to hear about the events of his complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Mr E’s complaint about Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) and the care and treatment he had. We are sorry to hear about his distressing experience and the pain he experienced.

2. We will not investigate the complaint because Mr E told us a solicitor has agreed to take on his case.