West London NHS Trust

3. Ms K complains about aspects of the care and treatment she received from West London NHS Trust between April and June 2022 when she was detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. She specifically complains the Trust: • told lies about her, including that she used special suits, put glass under tyres at night, and that she was unemployed • forced her to take Olanzapine against her will while detained and after she was discharged (a medication used to help manage mental conditions) • wouldn’t allow her to leave hospital until she agreed to a support package • tried to detain her again throughout 2022 based on reports from her neighbours • interfered with her private life by enquiring about why she evicted her lodger.

4. Ms K says she was detained against her will and fears the Trust could make a malicious false allegation and detain her again. She also feels unable to report a potential crime to the police as it would be reported to the Trust, who she believes would try to detain her. She says that this leaves her vulnerable, unprotected, fearful of the Trust, and fearful for her freedom.

5. Ms K would like an apology and financial remedy for emotional distress and for lost earnings of £2,706.75 while she was detained.

6. Miss K was detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act from 13 April 2022 to 10 May 2022.

7. Miss K complained to us and the Trust in April 2022. We decided not to look into her complaint further at this time as it was not ready for us. We only look at complaints once a complainant has complained directly to an organisation and has received a response letter.

8. The Trust responded to her complaint on 15 August 2022.

9. Ms K brought her complaint to us again on 1 September we decided the complaint was not ready for us as Ms K told us the Trust’s response did not address her complaint.

10. The Trust provided a further complaint response on 13 December 2022 and Ms K raised further points with the Trust on 11 April 2023.

11. The Trust provided its final complaint response on 12 September 2023 and Ms K brough her complaint to us on 2 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. We have discussed this with Ms K to understand the reasons why she could not do so. We have also considered the time the Trust has taken to respond to Ms K and the time she was waiting for us to consider her complaint.

15. The issues Ms K is complaining about occurred between 14 April 2022 when she was detained and 2 June 2022 when she first complained about the Trust making further attempts to detain her.

We consider Ms K knew about all the matters complained about by 2 June 2022. To meet our time limit for looking at a complaint, we would have expected Ms K to bring the complaint to us by 2 June 2023. She brought the complaint to us on 2 January 2024, seven months later.

16. Ms K complained to the Trust in April 2022 and she received a response on 15 August. Ms K contacted us again on 1 September and we said her complaint was not ready for us. She went back to the Trust on 3 October asking it to consider all her complaint points. The Trust responded on 12 December which directed her to bring her complaint to us if she remained dissatisfied.

17. Ms K complained to the Trust again in April 2023, four months later.

18. The Trust wrote to Ms K again in December 2023 and she brought her complaint to us in January 2024, four months later.

19. We asked Ms K why she did not bring the complaint to us sooner. She told us she believed she had six months to reply to complaint responses from the Trust.

20. Ms K also told us she couldn’t respond sooner to the Trust due to work commitments and because the process caused her emotional distress.

21. We recognise Ms K believed that she had six months to provide responses to the Trust. When we look at whether we should investigate a complaint we consider if it is reasonable to have expected someone to come to us within our time limit.

22. We can see from our records that we informed Ms K of our time limit on 22 April 2022, 1 September 2022, and 23 June 2023. The Trust also provided complaint responses on 15 August 2022, 13 December 2022, and 12 September 2023, which directed Ms K to us if she was dissatisfied.

23. We recognise that Ms K feels the demands of her work made it difficult to respond to the Trust sooner, and that responding to the Trust caused her emotional distress. We do not underestimate the impact these events had Ms K and we are sorry to hear of the distress responding to the Trust caused her.

24. We find that Ms K could have brought her complaint to us much sooner than 2 January 2024 and has been aware of our time limit since 22 April 2022. We recognise that Ms K had work commitments and found following up on her complaint to be emotionally distressing. We have not seen that these reasons justify the eight months of delay caused by the time it took Ms K to respond to the Trust.

25. Taking into account the evidence we have seen we do not consider we should put our time limit to one side.

26. We do not doubt how significantly this experience has impacted Ms K and recognise how important this complaint is to her. Although our decision may be disappointing, we hope Ms K is assured that we have carefully considered her explanations of delay and have explained our decision clearly.

1. We have carefully considered Ms K’s complaint about West London NHS Trust (the Trust). We are sorry to hear about her experience while detained under the Mental Health Act and of the considerable ongoing impact this has had on her.

2. We have considered the evidence available, including the significant impact the events had on Ms K. We have decided the complaint falls outside of our time limit. We have carefully considered the reasons Ms K did not bring her complaint to us sooner and do not believe there are grounds for us to set aside our time limit in this case.