Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

4. Mrs F complains that staff inappropriately discharged her mother, Mrs Q, which resulted in a failed discharge and her retuning to hospital the next day due to not being prescribed enough home oxygen. She complains staff gave her false accounts of her mother’s condition meaning she thought her mother’s condition was improving when palliative care had begun.

5. Mrs F says that it was deeply upsetting watching her mother suffer and it was distressing for her and her family not being able to follow her mother’s wishes about being at home when she died.

6. As a result of her complaint, Mrs F wants the Trust to acknowledge the failings in her mother’s care, for it to apologise and for the Trust to implement service improvements to avoid similar incidents happening to other patients.

9. 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 brough to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.

10. Mrs F complains about events that happened from 1 December 2021 to 10 January 2022. We consider 10 January 2022 to be the date of knowledge as this is when Mrs Q sadly died. This means that when Mrs F brought her complaint to us in February 2024, her complaint was 13 months (one year one month) outside of our time limit.

11. We looked at the complaint Mrs F made to the Trust, the Trust’s responses, and asked her for some more information about this to understand the reasons she did not bring the complaint to us sooner.

12.  Mrs F made a formal complaint to the Trust on 1 March 2022. She attended a local resolution meeting with the Trust to discuss her concerns on 10 May. The Trust provided a written response and summary of the meeting on 13 October. A second meeting was arranged for 7 November to address her outstanding concerns. In total, the Trust took approximately 11 months to investigate her complaint, sending her its final response on 18 January 2023. Mrs F tells us she did not receive the response until nearing the end of January.

13. Following the Trusts response, Mrs F approached our offices, and her complaint was registered with us on 21 February 2024, 13 months after receiving the Trust’s response.

14. Mrs F explained that after receiving the final response from the Trust, it was apparent that she still had outstanding concerns and needed to pursue her complaint with us. She says that although the Trust directed her to us, it did not provide any time restriction for contacting us. Although the Trust’s final response did not specifically give details of our time limit, it contained our contact details and references a leaflet about our services enclosed with the letter.

15. She told us that shortly after her mother died in January 2022, her father deteriorated and they were no longer able to care for him in the home environment, moving him to a residential care home in March 2022 ensuring she went to visit him each day.

16. She told us that she found the Trust’s complaint process exhausting and she felt as though the was not in a position to bring the complaint to us after receiving the final response.

17. When pursing her complaint with the Trust, Mrs F sent emails to arrange the local resolution meetings and to outline her outstanding concerns. During this time, her father was in residential care which was the same when she received the final response on 18 January 2023. To pursue the complaint with us would not have been any different in how she pursued her complaint with the Trust.

18. Whilst a stressful and clearly a difficult time for Mrs F ensuring her father was safe and well, we cannot say that this is reason enough for her not bringing her complaint to us after she received the Trust’s final response in January 2023.

19. On 8 April 2023, her father had a fall and sadly died the following day.

20. Following her father’s death on 9 April 2023, it was a further 10 months until she contacted our office to register her complaint. She says the grief of losing a second parent and having to deal with the probate, Will administration and house-clearing, prevented her from pursing her complaint. We appreciate this must have been an incredibly challenging time for Mrs F.

21. Given how she has told us how she was affected by the Trust’s response and that she believes the Trust’s actions contributed to her mother’s death, we would expect her to have brought the complaint to us sooner.

22. We think it would have been reasonable for Mrs F to bring the complaint to us sooner than the 13 months it took her after receiving the Trust’s final response and there was opportunity for her to do so. We appreciate that she was dealing with some really difficult issues after the death of her father, and this will have been stressful for her, we do not think these the reasons are enough for us to set our time limit aside.

23. For the reasons set out above, we have decided not to set our time limit to one side.

24. We are deeply sorry to hear about how upset Mrs F 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 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.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs F’s complaint about the care and treatment the Trust gave to her mother, Mrs Q, in December 2021 to when she died on 10 January 2022. We are sorry to hear how much these events have upset her and how difficult it has been for her since the events took place.

2. We have decided not to consider the complaint further because Mrs F brought her concerns to us outside of our time limit and we have not seen good cause to use our discretion to set the time limit aside.

3. We thank Mrs F for taking the time to tell us about her concerns. We recognise this decision will be disappointing and regret any distress this may cause.