Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr R complains about the care and treatment his wife, Mrs T, received from Hospital B. Specifically, he complains that:

• The doctors did not inform him of the severity of his wife’s clinical condition. Mr R explains doctors did not tell him his wife’s condition was terminal, did not take the time to ensure he understood the medical terminology they used, did not tell him what palliative care meant or inform him that the hospice was different from the hospital • The doctors gave his wife chemotherapy when they should not have done. He feels this caused black fluid to accumulate in her stomach • Several different student doctors attended to his wife which led to Mr R having to repeat himself to each doctor. Mr R also wanted his wife to have an Indian doctor but was told that the Trust did not have one available • The doctors did not allow him to take his wife to Goa for further treatment. Mr R explains that he asked doctors to let him take his wife on two different occasions but they threatened to have him arrested if he attempted this

4. Mr R explains his wife would have had a greater chance of survival if she had received sufficient treatment. He also feels that if staff allowed him to take his wife to Goa she would not have died. This has caused him and their daughter significant grief and upset. He also explains that he did not understand what was happening at the time which has caused him further distress and upset as he did not expect his wife’s clinical condition to deteriorate so suddenly.

5. Mr R would like an acknowledgement of failings and service improvements.

6. Mrs T had lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes). She was under the care of Hospital A as an outpatient. Her condition became worse and on 7 January 2019 she was admitted to Hospital B for further care.

7. During Mrs T’s admission, her condition deteriorated and staff felt she should be admitted to a hospice for end of life care. They discussed this with Mr R who agreed Mrs T should be admitted into a hospice. Mrs T was admitted into a hospice where she sadly died soon after.

8. Mr R approached an advocacy service on the 16 August to get help with raising his complaint. The case was allocated to an advocate on 25 September. They contacted Mr R shortly after and submitted his first complaint to Hospital A on the 31 October.

9. Hospital A offered Mr R a face-to-face local resolution meeting in March 2020 which he was not able to attend. Hospital A then offered to hold a virtual meeting, but Mr R advised that he would like a face-to-face meeting instead. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to hold a face-to-face meeting until 30 November 2021.

10. After the meeting, Hospital A provided a final response on 28 January 2022. This response signposted Mr R to us and advised him to approach us promptly as we had time limits for considering complaints.

11. Mr R then felt he should also complain to Hospital B for the care provided during Mrs T’s admission. He submitted this on 14 July and received a response on 6 September. This response signposted Mr R to us and advised him to approach us promptly as we had time limits for considering complaints. Mr R approached us on 6 January 2024.

14. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.

15. Mr R became aware of his concerns about the care and treatment his wife received at Hospital B in January 2019. He approached us with his complaint on 6 January 2024, roughly four years outside of our time limit.

16. When considering if we can set the time limit to one side, we look at the delays that were in Mr R’s control to see if he was actively seeking a resolution to his concerns. We have discussed this with Mr R to understand why he could not act on his concerns sooner.

17. Mr R explains that after his wife’s sad death, he was grieving and had to look after their daughter alone. This was very difficult, so he contacted an advocacy service to ask for support in raising a complaint. From this point there were several delays from the advocacy service in raising his complaint. There were also delays in receiving responses form the organisations involved.

18. We recognise Mr R was grieving the very sad loss of his wife in 2019. This would have caused a delay in him approaching an advocacy service with his concerns and raising these with the organisations involved.

19. Taking this into consideration, Mr R did so promptly and raised his complaint with Hospital A within one year, as stipulated by the NHS Complaints Regulations 2009. However, Mr R did not raise his complaint with Hospital B during this time frame. His complaint to us solely stems from aspects of care and treatment his wife received at Hospital B.

20. Mr R raised his complaint with Hospital B on 14 July 2022. We would have expected him to raise any concerns he had sooner than this, and when he raised his concerns about Hospital A with his advocate. We have seen no reason why Mr R could not raise his concerns about Hospital B sooner than 14 July 2022, nor that this delay was caused by the advocacy service.

21. We must carefully also consider that at this stage, Hospital A had already provided Mr R with a response which clearly outlined information on our service, including on our time limit for considering complaints. Therefore, he was aware of our legal time limit before he raised a complaint about Hospital B.

22. From this point, we can see Hospital B responded promptly on 28 January 2022. This response also signposted him to us and informed him we had legal time limits for considering complaints.

23. Mr R’s advocate explains after receiving this response, Mr R approached Hospital B again and they carried out another investigation. Hospital B then provided its final response on 3 November 2023. We do not know when Mr R approached Hospital B again. We have also not seen a copy of this response.

24. However, as we have not seen sufficient reasons for the significant delay in raising his complaint with Hospital B initially, we have not explored this delay further. This is because we are unable to set the time limit to one side due to this initial significant delay.

25. We recognise this will be disappointing for Mr R. We hope we have clearly explained the reasons for our decision in this statement. We would like to thank Mr R for raising his complaint with us and we wish him the best of luck in the future.

1. Mr R’s wife, Mrs T, sadly died in early 2019. We are very sorry for his loss. We know this was a very difficult time for him and his family. We would like to thank him for taking the time to provide us with information on his complaint about his wife’s care.

2. Having carefully considered Mr R’s complaint, we have decided we cannot consider it further because of the time that has passed since the events he complains about. We recognise our decision will be disappointing for Mr R. We hope we have clearly explained our reasons for this decision in this statement.