Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

3. Mrs T complains the Trust failed to diagnose her husband, Mr T, with colon cancer. She says this is despite her husband having loose stools for over three years and referrals from his GP in January and September 2021.

4. Mrs T feels the delays in diagnosis resulted in Mr T’s death in January 2023. She says had an earlier diagnosis occurred, Mr T may have been able to have treatment sooner which might have given him more time. Mrs T says her husband would have suffered less with an earlier diagnosis. She told us she feels very angry about the poor care and the anguish caused.

5. As an outcome to the complaint, she would like an acknowledgement of failings, an apology, service improvements, and financial compensation.

7. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances.

8. We have discussed this with Mrs T to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

9. Mrs T told us she is seeking an acknowledgement of failings, an apology, service improvements, and financial compensation. We asked Mrs T if she had a figure in mind for compensation which she would consider reasonable to resolve her complaint. Mrs T told us she is looking for around £20,000.

10. In her complaint form to us, Mrs T advised that she has not taken any legal action yet but is planning to. During a further telephone conversation with us, Mrs T said she would take her complaint to court after coming to us. She says this is what someone advised her to do although she cannot remember who this was.

11. We asked Mrs T if there is any other reason she is not pursuing legal action now and she said there was not. When asked, she said she could not afford to take legal action but that she would go through a no win no fee solicitor.

12. Based on our conversations, it is clear Mrs T intends to pursue legal action for her complaint and is seeking a large amount of compensation. She has provided us with no reasons as to why it would not be reasonable for her to do this.

13. As Mrs T is planning on pursing legal action, we consider she should do this now as there are time limits for doing so. As such, we have decided to close her complaint. Should Mrs T find that she is unable to take legal action she may be able to return her complaint to us so we can consider it further.

14. If she is unable to gain legal representation, Mrs T She should return to us as soon as possible as we have a time limit for bringing complaints to us. We can put our time limit to one side if it is reasonable to do so.

15. We are sorry we are unable to help Mrs T further with her complaint currently. We hope she is able to get some answers through pursuing legal action.

1. We were very sorry to hear of the loss of Mrs T’s husband, Mr T and offer our sincere condolences to her. We can see the events described in this complaint continue to have a profound impact on her.

2. We are have carefully considered Mrs T’s concerns and we consider Mrs T could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us. This means we will not take any further action on her complaint at this time. We appreciate this will be a disappointing decision to Mrs T. We have explained our reasons for this in full below.