10. The law says a person needs to make a complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem (we call this the date of knowledge). We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.
11. Miss EB complains about events that happened in March 2021. This means that when she brought her complaint to us in January 2024, her complaint was 22 months (one year 10 months) outside of our time limit.
12. We looked at the complaint Miss EB made to the Trust and the Trust’s response and asked her for some more information about this to understand the reasons why she did not bring the complaint to us sooner.
13. Miss EB first contacted our office on 22 September 2021. We told her she would first have to make a formal complaint to the organisation and receive a final response before we could consider her concerns. She sent an email to the Trust on the same day, registering a formal complaint. The Trust took nine months to investigate, responding on 6 June 2022.
14. Following the Trust’s response, Miss EB approached our offices on 22 January 2024 advising she had a final response from the Trust and would like to register a complaint with us. Her complaint was registered with us on 25 January 2024, 19 months after receiving the Trust’s response.
15. Miss EB explained that since the events in March 2021, she had experienced a number of serious setbacks that she believes to be a direct consequence of her mother contracting sepsis. She told us that these events meant she was not able to pursue her complaint. Miss EB says the delay in pursuing her complaint was due her mother being in a coma causing her severe PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She also detailed that this caused her to have a mental breakdown. Miss EB told us that she has been in contact with mental health services to work through this whilst also being a full-time young carer for her mother. She told us she is currently waiting for further physiological therapy from the NHS. We appreciate this must have been an incredibly challenging time for Miss EB. She lists the other events leading her to bring his complaint to us late:
• March 2021 to October 2021 – time spent rehabilitating her mother and caring for her on a 24/7 basis. She says her sole focus was on caring for her mother and she did not leave the house unless for care needs.
• October 2021 to November 2021 – external Council renovations started at her home for her mother’s disabled adaptations.
• June 2022 – Miss EB experienced a mental breakdown following receipt of the Trust’s complaint response.
• June 2022 – had to move out of the family home for internal adaptations could be completed to meet her mothers’ needs. This took 12 months to complete, and she and her mother stayed with her grandmother.
• May 2023 – Miss ZB had a fall and injured her spine, increasing her care needs.
• August 2023 – Miss EB was admitted to hospital for 5 days with a severe kidney infection.
• October 2023 – Miss EB experienced a migraine that lasted 7 days, sought input from GP and hospital.
• October 2023 – Miss ZB became unwell and admitted to the Trust with sepsis from an infection in her back muscles.
• December 2023 – Miss EB experienced a fall that has caused significant back pain.
• December 2023 – Miss ZB admitted to the Trust on Boxing Day.
• January 2024 – Miss ZB admitted to another hospital with pain from spinal injury.
16. It is clear that Miss EB has had a really difficult time, and her mental health difficulties will no doubt have made it harder for her to pursue her concerns. We have carefully considered Miss EB’s difficulties and the impact these would have had on her progressing her complaint.
17. We appreciate that having to learn how to care for her mother after her coma will have been extremely distressing for Miss EB given that she was so young. We also appreciate that having external work on her home to accommodate her mother’s disability adaptations was really stressful. Miss EB says that it took approximately one month for the work to be completed.
18. Adapting to her mother’s new care needs and the completion of the building work was during the time the Trust was investigating her complaint, meaning it did not impact the progression of the complaint. This was during a time that did not require action from Miss EB. However, we fully appreciate how the stress of these events may have affected her mental health.
19. When Miss EB received the Trust’s complaint response in June 2022, she says she had a mental breakdown triggered by the information in the response. As a result, she attended two hospitals on multiple occasions and has been in contact with her GP to address how she was feeling. She says she was not able to provide care for her mother, communicate effectively and that she neglected her self-care. Miss EB has told us that she has sought help from the hospital services and her GP to overcome how she has felt. We understand that at around the same time internal work started on her home, meaning she and her mother had to move out and live with another family member for approximately 12 months. She tells us it took her some time to acclimatise to her surroundings, and that she was in a safe space and received support with her mother’s care needs from family.
20. In May 2023, Miss EB and her mother moved back home, and her mother experienced a fall sustaining back and spinal injuries which required hospitalisation for one week and overall, increasing her care needs.
21. Whilst stressful and clearly a difficult period for Miss EB, we cannot conclude this would fully account for the delays in Miss EB bringing her complaint. With everything that Miss EB had going on before this, we can appreciate the stress she was going through. Miss EB chose not to pursue her complaint after her mother had a fall. It would have been open to her to seek support to pursue her complaint, such as through advocacy services such as she did with her own mental health.
22. Miss EB says that she has also had periods where she has been physically unwell. She told us that in August 2023 she was then admitted to hospital for five days, and two months later, in October she experienced a migraine that lasted 7 days. We are sorry to hear that her mother’s needs increased after sustaining a back injury and Miss EB was unwell. We cannot say that these events are reason enough for her not bringing the complaint to us in the time period between May and October 2023.
23. Later in October, Miss EB told us her mother became unwell and was admitted to the Trust for approximately four weeks with sepsis. She says that when she was discharged in November, she received home support from nurses and received input from district nursing to give her mother medication.
24. In December, Miss EB tells us she had a fall and as a result she is now taking regular pain relief that she says does not allow her to stay awake or think clearly. Also, on Boxing Day her mother was admitted to hospital, being discharged in mid-January 2024. Shortly after her discharge, her mother was readmitted to hospital.
25. Given how she has told us how she has told us she was affected by the Trust’s response and the impact she believes the Trust’s actions had on her mother’s health, we would expect her to have brought the complaint sooner. Whilst stressful and clearly a difficult period for Miss EB, we do not think these are reason enough for us to set aside our time limit.
26. We think it would have been reasonable for Miss EB to bring the complaint to us sooner than the 19 months it took her after receiving the Trust’s response. We appreciate that she was dealing with some really difficult issues, and this will have been stressful for her. Miss EB has told us she has been in receipt of support from her GP and is now on medication for her mental health and she has had some counselling services and is waiting for further input from the NHS. Acknowledging that Miss EB had an extremely challenging time, we have concluded that especially with the support she has had in place and could have accessed, she had the opportunity to pursue the complaint sooner than she did.
27. For the reasons set out above, we have decided not to set our time limit to one side.
28. We are deeply sorry to hear about how upset Miss EB has been and how she has been affected. We understand how important this complaint is to her and thank her for sharing the details. It is important we consider and act within the law and we regret any further upset this decision may cause. We hope this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering the complaint further.