Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The Practice

3. Mr A complains about care the Practice provided his nephew, Mr Y, November 2022 and 18 July 2023. Specifically, he complains that it did not properly investigate his symptoms and wrongly diagnosed him with a viral infection.

4. He considers more thorough investigations would have revealed cancer and a mass around Mr Y's heart. He says the Practice’s actions delayed his nephew receiving a correct diagnosis and accessing care that could have prolonged his life.

The Trusts

5. Mr A complains about care Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust provided his nephew between July and August 2023.

6. He says Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust delayed arranging an operation that could have saved his life. He considers its decision not to arrange this before Mr Y's liver deteriorated led to his death.

7. Mr A also complains about Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust communication throughout his nephew’s hospital admission. He says staff provided minimal and inconsistent information to his family which caused them confusion as they did not understand what was happening with Mr Y's care.

8. He tells us staff repeatedly told Mr Y and his parents an operation would be taking place when this was not the case. Mr A says this gave his family false hope and meant they were not prepared for his death.

9. He complains that Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust did not take over his nephew’s care and perform an operation that could have saved his life.

10. He also complains about Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s communication in response to his complaint. He says it denied having discussions about taking over Mr Y's care with his team at Hull. Mr A considers it has not been truthful in its responses which has caused his family additional distress at an already distressing time.

11. In bringing the complaint to us, Mr A would like the organisations to acknowledge what went wrong, apologise, make service improvements and make a financial payment.

14. The Health Service Commissioners Act of 1993 (HCSA) says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has, or had, the option to take legal action. This is unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances.

15. We consider Mr A or his family may be able to take legal action. This is because he has told us each organisation’s actions caused his nephew suffering and led to his death. They may be able to pursue this via a clinical negligence claim.

16. Mr A and his family are seeking a financial remedy and want to take legal action. Whilst we may recommend a financial payment if we were to uphold the complaint, the family may be able to achieve a higher amount if any legal action they take is successful.

17. We spoke to Mr A to understand his complaint, the impacts he says he and Mr Y’s parents have faced because of their experiences and whether legal action would be reasonable for them to pursue. During our call Mr A said the family are open to seeking legal action and had been considering this as an option. He said he came to us first as he thought this was what he was supposed to do.

18. During our discussion, Mr A did not make us aware of any surrounding circumstances which lead us to consider it unreasonable to pursue a legal route. Mr A understands Mr Y’s parents may need to be the ones that pursue a legal claim, and he is happy to support them with this.

19. We consider it is reasonable for Mr A and his family to explore legal action before he asks us to consider his concerns about his nephew’s care. If they are unsuccessful or legal action cannot achieve their desired outcome, he can bring his complaint back to us. We cannot look at concerns a court has already examined, but we can consider if there is anything remaining we can look at, and if there are any other outcomes we may be able to achieve for him.

20. Whilst Mr A does not have a possible cause of action for his concerns about communication, these are closely linked to his main concern about his nephew’s care. It would not be appropriate for us to consider looking at either Trust’s communication in isolation. We would not be able to achieve the outcome he wants by solely looking at these parts of his complaint. This is because Mr A says his main concern is his nephew’s care and his concern that this resulted in his sad death.

21. If Mr A wants to bring his complaint back to us, he should do this as soon as he can. This is because complainants must come to us within 12 months from the date they were aware they had reason to complain. We do have some discretion when applying our time limit but there must be good reason for us to put this to one side.

1. We have carefully considered Mr A’s complain about the Practice, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. We are sorry to hear of his nephew’s death and the significant impact this has had and continues to have for his family.

2. In speaking to Mr A, we consider Mr A and his family could explore taking legal action on his complaint, and it is reasonable for them to do so. We have explained the reasons for this within the following statement.