Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

3. Mrs A complains that clinicians at the Hospital:

• delayed investigating and diagnosing her husband’s prostate cancer from October 2022

• decided not to proceed with a surgical procedure on 19 January 2023

• were reluctant to admit her husband to the Hospital following fall on 20 April 2023.

• delayed investigating a stroke and instead focussed on infection

• delayed an MRI scan from 27 April 2023

• did not give medication that was needed on 21 April 2023

• failed to escalate care when her husband’s health worsened on and before 23 April.

4. Mrs A believes clinicians could have prevented her husband’s strokes or given him treatment that would have helped him. She says his family were unable to say goodbye to him. She says they are distressed about the issues in her complaint.

5. Mrs A wants the Trust to accept responsibility for what happened and to apologise to the family. She wants compensation for the loss of her husband and for the family’s distress. She described how she has experienced a financial loss because of her husband’s death, which has meant she has had to keep working when she wanted to retire.

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 had email communications with Mrs A 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 into.

8. In our emails with Mrs A, we discussed the outcomes she would be satisfied with if we were to uphold her complaint. She was clear that, while she would appreciate it if the Trust accepted accountability for what happened, she was looking for a significant compensation payment. She said she could not put an amount on her husband’s life. However, she was clear that she wanted compensation for herself and her family and explained how she has experienced a financial loss because of her husband’s death.

9. We asked Mrs A to explain if there were any reasons why she was prevented from seeking legal advice. She has not provided any reasons.

10. We have seen no evidence to explain why Mrs A cannot seek legal advice. She could contact solicitors to assist her with this. However, she should be mindful that there are time limits for taking legal action. If there is a clear reason why she is prevented from taking legal action it is possible we could consider her complaint again. But she would need to contact us without delay because we also have a time limit. We do not normally investigate incidents that happened more than a year ago, unless there is a clear reason why a complainant was unable to contact us.

11. We would not be able to recommend the amount of compensation Mrs A is looking for if were to investigate further and uphold her complaint. The only way she could achieve that level of payment would be by making a successful claim for negligence in the courts. We consider it would be reasonable for Mrs A to seek further legal advice.

12. We can see how upsetting these events have been for Mrs A. We are sorry we cannot help her on this occasion.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about the Trust. Mrs A complains about aspects of the care and treatment clinicians at Sandwell General Hospital (the Hospital – part of the Trust) gave to her husband between October 2022 and May 2023. She believes failings led to her husband's death. We can see how devastating these events have been for Mrs A and her family. We offer them our sincere condolences for their loss.

2. We have decided not to start a detailed investigation because we consider Mrs A could take legal action about the matter she brought to us. We recognise this will be disappointing for Mrs A.