Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr R complains about aspects of the care and treatment Trust A, Trust B and the three GP Practices provided to him in 2022 and 2023. Mr R has specific concerns about the organisations’ failure to diagnose his trigeminal neuralgia (a condition that causes sudden, severe facial pain). Mr R also said more should have been done to investigate his symptoms relating to his neck instability and connected tissue. Mr R told us the organisations missed an opportunity to diagnose him when it obtained a scan which revealed his diagnosis.

4. Mr R has told us the organisations’ actions ruined his life and meant he was not given the care and treatment he needed.

5. To resolve his complaint, Mr R is seeking financial redress of £50,000 to £60,000.

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 Mr R to understand his circumstances and the outcome he is hoping to achieve. Mr R has told us he is seeking financial compensation for the organisations’ actions.

9. Mr R has told us he is seeking a significant amount of compensation and is looking to recover the costs he has spent seeking overseas private treatment. We have discussed this with Mr R and explained that this it is more than the typical amounts we would recommend in cases such as this. We have also explained we cannot ordinarily reimburse costs someone has spent on private treatment.

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

12. If Mr R explores legal action and decides it is not the right course of action to take or takes legal action and still has unresolved issues or outcomes that are not considered or remedied by the courts, he can ask us to consider his complaint again.

13. We recognise how important this matter is to Mr R and the significance of the impact the events have had on him. We thank him for bringing this complaint to our attention.

1. We have carefully considered Mr R’s complaint about the Trusts and GP Practices. We are sorry to hear about everything that happened to Mr R and thank him for discussing such difficult events so openly.

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