3. Miss and Mrs Q complain that staff stopped Mr Q’s medication and delayed in setting up a syringe driver when Mr Q was on the end-of-life pathway in February 2023.
4. They say that the lack of medication caused Mr Q to thrash around in pain, before he died on 1 March 2023, which caused injury and severe bruising which was distressing for them to witness.
5. To resolve their complaint, Miss and Mrs Q are seeking compensation.
8. 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 do so. We do not base our decision on how successful legal action would be. Rather, we consider whether legal action is a reasonable option for someone to pursue.
9. We discussed this with Miss and Mrs Q to understand their circumstances and the outcomes they are hoping to achieve. They told us they are seeking financial compensation for the Trust’s actions as it has already put in place service improvements.
10. Miss and Mrs Q have not told us how much compensation they are seeking. They have described that any money awarded will be split six ways amongst the family who saw Mr Q before he died. We appreciate they do not know exactly how much compensation they consider would be appropriate. However, they have indicated this is more than the typical amounts we would award in cases such as this.
11. Miss and Mrs Q told us they wanted to pursue legal action and raised no barriers in doing so, financial or otherwise. They are aware legal advice can be free of charge or offered under a conditional arrangement such as ‘no win, no fee’ services, which would not incur any upfront charges.
12. Should Miss and Mrs Q want to bring their complaint back to us, they should do so as promptly as they can. This is because we have a time limit for looking at complaints which is 12 months from the date the person was aware they had a reason to complain. The complaint appears to be in time as they raised their concerns with the Trust and brought the complaint to us within 12 months of Mr Q’s death. Therefore, we ask they return to us without delay. If they delay in returning to us, it may mean we cannot consider their complaint.
13. We have considered the relevant factors and law. Miss and Mrs Q could take legal action on the issues they have brought to us. We do not see any barriers to prevent them from pursuing legal action and we think it is reasonable that they do. We have therefore decided not to consider the complaint any further.
14. We recognise how important this matter is to Miss and Mrs Q and the significance of the impact the events have had on them and their family. We thank them both for bringing this complaint to our attention.
1. We have carefully considered Miss and Mrs Q’s complaint about the Trust. We have decided not to consider the complaint any further. This is because we consider Miss and Mrs Q could take legal action on the matter they have brought to us.
2. We are sorry to hear about the circumstances that have brought Miss and Mrs Q to our office. We offer them and their family our deepest condolences for the loss of Mr Q, father and husband.