9. 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 Mr G to understand the reasons why he could not bring his complaint sooner. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to Mr G.
10. Mr G became aware he had concerns about the care and treatment the Trust provided to his son around the time of N’s death in May 2020. For his complaint to be in time, Mr G would have needed to complain to us by May 2021. As he provided his complaint and supporting documentation to us in November 2024, three years and six months outside of our time limit, we considered the reasons for delay.
11. Mr G raised his complaint with the Trust in September 2022, it provided a response in December 2022. This took three months. Mr G returned to the Trust with further concerns in the same month it responded. The Trust sent Mr G its final response one year and ten months later in October 2024. This is not in line with regulations which say organisations should respond to complaints within six months.
12. It is right the Trust has reflected on its delay to respond to Mr G and understood the additional distressed this caused him. We recognise this must have been frustrating for Mr G. We do not think this delay means we should set aside our time limit. This is because Mr G’s complaint was already one year and four months outside the time limit at the point he made the complaint in 2022.
13. Mr G took two years and four months to complain to the Trust. When asked about this delay and why he did not raise a complaint until September 2022, Mr G gave us several reasons. He explained this was a difficult time and he was still grieving for his son, as well as experiencing his own health difficulties. He also told us it took him six months to find a solicitor and then was engaged with pursuing a claim against the Trust. Mr G explains that in April 2023 the solicitor declined his case and this went no further.
14. Mr G shared additional reasons for not making a formal complaint to the Trust until September 2022. He told us it was not until his solicitor declined his case that he heard of the complaint process. Mr G said he was surprised his solicitor had not advised him to raise a complaint with the Trust or had done this on his behalf. Mr G also explained he needed time to review the postmortem report to understand fully what went wrong with his son’s care.
15. We are very sorry to hear of how difficult things have been for Mr G. We can understand some of the delay, particularly immediately after his son’s death, which we recognise would have been very distressing. This must have been a very difficult time for him, and we can understand why he needed some time to grieve.
16. We have carefully considered Mr G’s reasons and are grateful for the time and work put into providing us with a clear and detailed complaint, and we thank him for this. We can see Mr G wanted to take time to review the postmortem report.
17. Having carefully considered the reasons Mr G shared we do not think these sufficient to set our time limit aside. We can see from Mr G’s own account he wanted to review the postmortem report before pursuing his complaint with the Trust. This was open to Mr G to do. Whilst we do not know when Mr G would have received the report, we can see the report was dated August 2020.
18. From Mr G’s own account, he has confirmed he was aware of his reasons to complain as he had concerns about his sons care at the time of events. We do not think the time taken by Mr G to review the postmortem report is good reason to set aside our time limit. Having full context of medical care and fully understanding what went wrong is not a requirement of raising a complaint, or of our own processes. We do not consider this prevented Mr G from raising his complaint with the Trust earlier.
19. We have also considered Mr G’s other main reason for delay being that he was actively pursuing a legal claim. This was the choice he made at that time. We can see from the information provided, this was important to Mr G, as he spent a significant amount of time obtaining representation.
20. We have thought about what Mr G explained to us, that he did not know about the complaints process and would have expected his solicitor to advise him of this or to have formally complained on his behalf.
21. The Trust’s online complaint resources detail steps people can take if they are unhappy with the care and treatment received at the Trust. It says people should let the organisation know by emailing it directly. It explains its complaints process, along with providing links and supporting information to its complaints policy.
22. Given the information available, we think it would have been reasonable for Mr G to take independent steps to consider what options were open to him before September 2022.
23. To summarise, we do not consider the reasons Mr G gave for the delay in raising his concerns are enough justification for us to set aside our time limit. There was a significant period of between 2020 and 2022 when Mr G could have made a complaint but did not do so.
24. We understand Mr G chose to pursue matters by corresponding with solicitors before raising a formal complaint or coming to our Office. Considering all that we have seen we think he had the opportunity to raise his complaint with the Trust sooner.
25. For this reason, we have decided not to consider the complaint further.
26. We understand how much this matter means to Mr G and thank him for sharing the details of his complaint. It is important we consider and act within the law and we hope this statement clearly explains the reasons for our decision.