12. 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 Mr A to understand the reasons why he could not do so. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to Mr A.
13. Mr A knew he had a reason to complain at the time of events in May 2020. Although Mr A says he became aware of some further details during the inquest in March 2021, he knew he was unhappy with the care and treatment the Trust provided to his wife at the time. Mr A’s complaint would therefore need to have been brought to us by May 2021 for it to be in time. Mr A completed his complaint form and submitted it to us in June 2024. This means Mr A’s complaint is outside of our time limit by approximately three years.
14. Mr A first telephoned us about his concerns in May 2021. As Mr A had not yet raised his concerns with the Trust, we told him his complaint was not ready for us to consider. Mr A then complained to the Trust and instructed solicitors to pursue a clinical negligence claim.
15. The Trust responded to Mr A’s complaint on 16 September 2021 and directed him to our service if he remained dissatisfied. Mr A contacted us following receipt of the Trust’s response, and we advised of our timescales and told him we could not consider his complaint whilst legal action was ongoing.
16. Mr A contacted us again in March 2023 and said his solicitors had closed his case. We again informed him of our timescales and advised him to complete our complaint form. Mr A then chose to seek further legal advice. He came back to us again in August 2023 to say the solicitor was no longer dealing with his case. We again explained about our time limit and resent a copy of the complaint form in the post for him to complete.
17. On 21 February 2024, Mr A contacted us again. He said other solicitors were not able to take on his case. We advised him he needed to complete a complaint form and resent a copy to him in the post.
18. Mr A telephoned us on 17 April 2023, and we again told him to send us his completed complaint form. He called for some advice on completing complaint form on 26 April 2024 and this was provided. Mr A sent his complaint form to us by email on 9 June 2024 and provided supporting documents on 20 June 2024.
19. We explored Mr A’s reasons for the delays in him bringing the complaint to us. Mr A says he was exploring his legal options during this time, and he got in touch with lots of different firms. He says he also had some health issues after February 2024 with his stoma and he was seeing specialists about knee replacements.
20. We are very sorry to hear about Mr A’s concerns and do not doubt it was an incredibly distressing and upsetting time for him as he dealt with what happened to his wife and her very sad death. The Trust directed Mr A to our service in September 2021 and he continued to try and pursue a legal claim instead of bringing the complaint to us. The complaint is significantly outside of our time limit, and we would therefore need to see a good reason for the delays.
21. Each time Mr A contacted us since May 2021, we reminded him of our time limit and we sent him a copy of the complaint form to complete on three occasions. Mr A chose not to complete this until June 2024. We are sorry to hear that Mr A experienced some health issues during this time. From what Mr A has told us, we can see he has been continuously trying to pursue legal action and has been actively contacting solicitors. We therefore consider it would have been reasonable for him to have brought his complaint to us sooner than he did.
22. We do not consider it is reasonable to exercise our discretion and set the time limit aside in this case. We have not identified any exceptional circumstances which would lead us to investigate. We will therefore take no further action.