12. 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 explored this with Mrs O to understand the reasons why Mr A could not do so. We have also considered the time the Ambulance Trust and Practice has taken to respond to Mr A.
13. Mrs O says that she complained on behalf of Mr A to the Practice on 13 September 2022. She then complained to the Ambulance Trust on 16 September 2022. The Practice had a telephone call with Mr A on 14 September 2022 and then held a meeting on 15 September 2022, including Mrs O via a conference call. The Ambulance Trust sent its serious incident report on 28 February 2023.
14. Mrs O says that she asked the Practice for a written response after the conference call and chased the Practice for one around every two to three weeks after. She said that she contacted us in February 2024 asking to bring Mr A’s concerns.
15. We told her she needed a written response to the Practice complaint. Once she had one, this would allow her to raise her concerns with us. We also sent a copy of our complaint form. She says that she contacted the Practice about the final response, and it provided one on 12 April 2024, apologising for the delay in its response.
16. Our records show that Mr A signed the complaint form on 16 July 2024, and we received the form on 2 October 2024.
17. We discussed with Mrs O the impact Mr A’s concerns have had on him. She says that the Practice was treating Mr A for depression at the time he raised his concerns so it should have known the impact that this was having on his mental and physical health.
18. We discussed why Mr A did not bring his concerns to us when they received the serious incident report from the Ambulance Trust. She said that Mr A was not in the right headspace at the time. She says that he would not go out of the house and refused to talk about the complaint. She says he has a lot of underlying anger about Mrs A’s death and the actions of those involved. She said once they received the Practice’s written response, this took a great toll on Mr A’s mental health.
19. She says that they took some time to confirm that they wanted to bring the concerns to us and then spent some time completing the complaint form and gathering their evidence together. Mrs O also explained her own difficulties which prevented her in bringing the complaint to us sooner. She also said that she was not initially aware of our service.
20. We appreciate the impact that Mrs A’s death had on Mr A, the deep distress this caused and the significant effect this had on his mental health. We appreciate that it is difficult for a person going through a bereavement to raise their concerns, and the upheaval that comes with it. We also appreciate that this can, at times, delay a person raising their concerns.
21. From the information we have seen, Mr A raised his initial concerns with the Ambulance Trust and the Practice in a timely manner and well within the requirements of the law.
22. The Ambulance Trust provided its response in time. The Practice held its meetings in a timely manner and said that they thought that this was enough to finalise its complaints process. We can conclude that the Practice is responsible for some of the delay in this case.
23. We cannot disregard the fact that the Trust sent its serious incident report in February 2023, and Mr A remained aware of his concerns throughout 2023 and early 2024 when Mrs O contacted us to start our complaints process. Mr A was able to pursue his complaint in the months after receiving Mrs A’s death certificate (completed in July 2022). Had contact been made with us earlier than it was, Mr A would have been able to pursue his complaint with us sooner rather than later. Had he done so, his complaint may not have been made out of time.
24. We consider it would have been possible for Mr A to contact us sooner than February 2024 and possible that he could have submitted the complaint form to this office sooner than October 2024. This is why we have decided not to set aside the time limit. This means that we will not consider this complaint further.
25. We recognise this is not the decision Mr A was hoping for and are sorry for any upset this causes. We hope we have clearly explained our reasons for it.