Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

3. Miss Y complains about Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). She says staff left her father alone on two occasions on 29 December 2023, when they knew he was at risk of falling, and this led to in him falling twice. Miss Y also says the Trust overlooked her father’s CT scan which meant there was a delay in diagnosing the bleed on his brain.

4. Miss Y says her father’s falls caused him to have a bleed on his brain. He sadly died on 16 January 2024. She says the way her father was looked after has caused her upset and distress and impacted her grief.

5. As an outcome of her complaint Miss Y would like service improvements and a financial remedy.

7. The law 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. We have discussed this with Miss Y 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.

8. Miss Y says the Trust’s failed to properly monitor her father which resulted in him falling twice and sustaining a bleed on his brain. It appears she could potentially pursue a clinical negligence claim. In line with our legislation, we have considered whether it would be reasonable for her to do so.

9. Miss Y says she would be looking for a financial remedy of approximately £5000. We do not consider compensation in the same way as the courts and the amounts we can recommend are typically more modest in comparison. A court would be able to carefully consider and assess an appropriate amount of compensation. We would not want to disadvantage Miss Y by ‘under settling’ the claim when it would be more appropriate for her to go through a legal process.

10. Miss Y tells us she passed information to solicitors at the same time as she brought the complaint to us, and they told her to get information from the Trust. Our process is not a precursor to somebody pursing a legal claim. Miss Y said she does not think she will go down the legal route because of the costs involved. Miss Y says there are no other barriers to prevent her from pursuing a legal claim.

11. We appreciate Miss Y’s concerns about the affordability of pursuing legal action. Clinical negligence claims can often be funded can by way of a ‘no win no fee’ agreement. A solicitor would be able to confirm if they can take on Miss Y’s claim on this basis.

12. It is also likely we would require the same amount of information and input from Miss Y as a solicitor would. We are an independent and impartial service, whereas a solicitor would be acting on her behalf and would be able to support her through the process.

13. Miss Y is also seeking service improvements. Whilst legal action could not be taken with this sole purpose, service improvements could potentially be a by- product of legal action.

14. Given the financial remedy Miss Y is seeking, we consider it would be reasonable for her to obtain legal advice to see if she could potentially achieve the outcomes she is seeking via the courts. If there are any outstanding outcomes that cannot be achieved through the legal claim or if Miss Y finds she is unable to pursue legal action after obtaining advice, she can bring the complaint back to us to consider further.

15. We understand how important Miss Y’s complaint is to her and we thank her for taking the time to bring it to us.

1. We have carefully considered Miss Y’s complaint about Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are very sorry to hear about Miss Y’s concerns and appreciate it has been a very distressing and difficult time for her and her family.

2. We consider Miss Y could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us, and we will not take any further action at this stage.