East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

3. Mrs V complains the organisations failed to provide treatment and support to her infant son who is experiencing developmental delays. Mrs V says the organisations failed to work together and have delayed referring him for further investigations when needed.

4. Mrs V says their failure to provide support and treatment delayed his development and left him in pain. She told us about the mental and emotional impact this had on him and the family. Mrs V also told us she is in significant debt after giving up her job to care for her son.

5. To resolve her complaint, Mrs V would like the organisations to explain themselves and make a financial payment to her.

7. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (the law) says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has the option to take legal action, unless we consider it is not reasonable for them to. We do not base our decision on how successful legal action would be but whether it is a reasonable option for someone to look into.

8. We discussed this with Mrs V to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she is hoping to achieve. Mrs V told us she is looking for a financial payment to make up for what each organisation did.

9. Mrs V has not told us how much she wants. She said she has given up her job to care for her son and described being financially affected because of this. Mrs V told us the family are left with significant debt.

10. Mrs V told us she is already exploring legal action and has no concerns about doing this.

11. Mrs V says she would also like an explanation from the organisations about their actions. If a court does not achieve this for her, she may wish to return to us and ask us to investigate it.

12. We have therefore decided not to consider the complaint further now as it is reasonable for Mrs V to continue with legal action.

13. We recognise how important this is to Mrs V and how much the family has been affected. We thank her for bringing her complaint to our attention.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs V’s complaint about Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and a GP practice in Hastings area. We are sorry to hear about what happened and the health problems her son faced.

2. We have decided not to consider the complaint further because we think Mrs V could take legal action to resolve it.