South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs A complains about aspects of care and treatment, her husband, Mr B received from South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (The Trust). In particular, she says the Trust ignored her husband’s wish to be re-intubated and says she was excluded from any discussion in relation to this (she says the Trust did not feel her husband’s quality of life would be sufficient to re-intubate).

4. She also says delays in extubating her husband led to Pseudomonas, leading to a longer period on the ventilation. Mrs A also says she does not know how or when the palliative care team became involve in her husband’s care.

5. As a result, she says her husband died due to the actions of the Trust. She says the family was left heartbroken and upset, and she says she was denied the last period of Mr B’s life together.

6. She is seeking an apology, service improvements (in respect to the palliative care team) an acknowledgement of failings and some form of financial compensation.

9. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has the option to take legal action, unless we consider it is not reasonable for them to do so. We do not base our decision on how successful legal action would be. Rather, we consider whether legal action is a reasonable option for someone to pursue.

10. In her complaint form she outlined her desire for answers from the Trust and financial remedy (level six of our remedy scale), as outcomes to her complaint.

11. We discussed this with Mrs A to understand her circumstances and explain our role. In our telephone call with Mrs S, she explained her main concern was gaining answers from the Trust.

12. She explained that it was her daughter that mentioned she should ask for a financial remedy. However, following our call, Mrs S still insisted in a financial remedy was an outcome she desired.

13. We subsequently contacted Mrs A again and asked her to explain why she hadn’t pursued legal action. She explained she was told she was unable to go through legal proceedings and have an active complaint with our office. She explained that legal proceedings would be traumatic, and distressing and she would prefer to go through our office first.

14. She also outlined her desire for a financial remedy, explaining this is usually the only acceptance a ‘claimant’ ever gets from the Trust. She also explained she wanted an apology and service improvements.

15. Mrs A explained, she only has until January 2026 for proceedings to be issued and that ‘realistically this would entail consulting lawyers by October at the latest and proceedings could be issued pre-emptively to ensure the claim was not out of time and then the pleadings amended at a later date’.

16. From the information Mrs A has provided, we are not convinced it would not be reasonable for her to pursue legal action at this stage.

17. Firstly, we are generally not able to provide the same levels of financial remedy that a court can. Mrs A has come to us seeking a considerable amount, and although not outside what we can achieve, we would consider legal action more appropriate. Whilst we can make some recommendations for financial remedy, we consider the courts best placed to consider a more significant financial outcome for Mrs A.

18. We cannot act in an advisory capacity however Mrs A could seek such advice free of charge. If Mrs A has concerns about legal costs, she could consider legal representation under a conditional fee arrangement, commonly known as a ‘no-win-no-fee’ basis, which would not incur any upfront costs.

19. As outlined in her email to our office, Mrs A is aware of the time limits regarding legal action and the need to make a claim prior to January 2026. This indicates, she is considering taking action and there is no guarantee that if did consider the case, our wok would be concluded by this time.

20. We cannot continue any investigation once legal proceedings are started and with this in mind, we found the best thing for Mrs A to do first is to pursue legal proceedings, given the tight time limits involved and the indication that this is something she will do at a later date.

21. Mrs A has also raised concerns about the distressing and traumatic nature of legal proceedings, especially given the nature of her concerns. We fully appreciate court proceedings may cause her a great deal of distress and upset, but this does not need to be a barrier. It appears Mrs A has a daughter who is a solicitor who could support her throughout or if she chooses, she can ask a solicitor to represent her fully.

22. We have considered the relevant factors and the law. Mrs A is still in time to pursue legal action. The legal route appears to be the most appropriate route for her to pursue at this stage, given she has indicated she is seeking significant financial remedy, and she is willing to pursue legal action later (before the three-year cut off).

23. Although, we understand Mrs A may not want to pursue legal action at this stage, we do not see any barriers to prevent her from pursuing or at the least exploring this option currently, and in line with our law, we think it is reasonable that she does so. We have therefore decided not to consider the complaint further.

24. We recognise how important this complaint is to Mrs A, and we thank her for bringing it to us for our consideration.

1. We were incredibly sorry to have learned about what led Mrs A to bring her complaint to us. We consider Mrs A could take legal action on the matters she has raised. On this basis we have decided not to consider the complaint further.

2. We understand how important this matter is to Mrs A. We recognise what happened continues to cause her considerable distress. We explain the reasons for our decision below.