Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs T complains about aspects of the care and treatment the Trust provided to her mother from October 2023 to February 2024. Mrs T has specific concerns about the care and treatment it gave for Mrs A’s pressure ulcers and the nursing care she received. Mrs T also told us about concerns surrounding Mrs A’s discharge. She said her mother was not sent home with correct paperwork or support equipment she needed.

4. Mrs T has told us the Trust’s actions caused her mother’s death and meant she was not given the care and treatment she needed. She told us of the trauma and emotional turmoil losing her mother had on her, and her family.

5. To resolve her complaint, Mrs T is seeking service improvements, an apology and financial redress.

7. 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.

8. We discussed this with Mrs T to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she is hoping to achieve. Mrs T has told us she is seeking financial compensation for the Trust’s actions.

9. Mrs T has not told us how much compensation she is seeking. She said she has sought legal advice as she is not happy with the Trust’s settlement offer.

10. Mrs T told us she is currently pursuing legal action and has no barriers to accessing legal advice. In any instance legal advice can be free of charge, or offered under a conditional arrangement such as, ‘no win, no fee’ services, which would not incur any upfront charges.

11. Mrs T says she would also like an apology from the Trust and service improvements. If the court does not achieve this, she may wish to return to us and ask us to consider this for her.

12. We have considered the relevant factors and law. Mrs T could take legal action on the issues she has brought to us. We do not see any barriers to prevent Mrs T from pursuing legal action and we think it is reasonable that she does so. We have therefore decided not to consider the complaint further.

13. We recognise how important this matter is to Mrs T and the significance of the impact the events have had on her and her family. We thank her for bringing this complaint to our attention.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs T’s complaint about the Trust. We are sorry to hear about what happened and offer Mrs T our deepest condolences for the loss of her mother, Mrs A.

2. We have decided not to consider the complaint further. This is because we consider Mrs T could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.