County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs A complains about how doctors and midwives employed by the Trust cared for and treated her before and after the birth of her son in December 2021. She says there was little, or no, support and episodes of bleeding were not properly handled. She says a doctor refused to examine her when she had concerns. She also says the Trust has not fully responded to her complaint.

4. Mrs A accepts that her baby son died because of his prematurity, and this could not have been avoided. She says she experienced distress and worry. She says poor complaint handling has added to her distress.

5. Mrs A wants the Trust to take responsibility for what happened. She wants to ensure there is learning from what happened and for the Trust to handle complaints more compassionately.

7. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so. We have discussed this with Mrs A to understand the reasons why she could not do so. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to the complaint.

8. Mrs A’s complaint to us is out of time. The events she complained about happened almost three years before she complained to us.

9. Mrs A complained to the Trust in March 2022 within one year of the events in question. This was in line with the NHS complaints process. The Trust replied to her complaint in April 2022. It then arranged a Being Open meeting with Mrs A and her husband on 7 September 2022. At that meeting the Trust’s representatives agreed to carry out further actions following on from Mrs A’s complaint. They arranged a further meeting to discuss these actions. This took place on 5 October 2022 and the Trust followed this with a report which it sent on 17 October 2022.

10. The evidence suggests the Trust’s complaints team had agreed to carry out additional actions. It shared information about the action it had taken in an email to Mrs A in February 2023. On 13 September 2023 a member of the Trust’s complaints team had a conversation with Mrs A. The Trust said it had nothing further to add and sent Mrs A an email along with an information leaflet about our service on 18 September 2023.

11. Mrs A waited until October 2024 before she contacted us. This was more than a year after her last correspondence with the Trust. We asked Mrs A to explain the reason for the delays between September 2023 and October 2024. She was able to provide reasons why she could not contact us sooner for only part of that time.

12. Mrs A told us that she was pregnant during the latter part of the year, which was a stressful period, and she also did not want to complain around the anniversary of her son’s death in December. We agree these were good reasons for her not to have contacted us.

13. From that point onwards Mrs A explained how there were financial problems and also concerns about her older child’s behaviour. We were sorry to hear about these difficulties. Our view is these would not have prevented Mrs A complaining, either with support from her husband or an advocate.

14. Clearly, the events of December 2021 continue to be a source of distress for Mrs A and her family. We appreciate our decision not to investigate further is likely to add to their distress. We hope we have clearly explained why we are unable to waive the time limit in this case.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about the Trust. We were sorry to read about the death of her baby son. We can see how devastating these events have been for Mrs A and her family. We offer our sincere condolences to them for their loss.

2. The complaint falls outside our time limit, and we have decided there is no good reason to put our time limit aside to consider it further. We recognise this will be disappointing for Mrs A.