NHS England

4. Mrs O complains about the care are treatment she received from County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust (the Trust) in June 2024. She says the Trust failed to:

• correctly identify and diagnose a break to the upper glenoid bone on her initial presentation in A&E on 13 June 2024.

• complete the relevant tests, x-rays, scans or further investigation when they called her back to discuss the potential broken bone on 19 June 2024.

5. As a result of these failings, Mrs O states she suffers from pain and limited movement in her right shoulder, and her broken bone healed misaligned. The surgical option available to her is a full shoulder replacement. Mrs O says she will never regain full movement in her right shoulder.

6. As an outcome to her complaint Mrs O seeks confirmation it was her x-rays that were viewed during her attendance at the hospital. She also seeks service improvements, an apology and a financial remedy.

7. On 13 June 2024 Mrs O suffered a fall while playing golf and injured her right shoulder. She visited Darlington A&E and had an x-ray. She was diagnosed with a possible dislocated shoulder. She was discharged later that day.

8. On 19 June 2024, Mrs O was called back to the Trust as it said she had a possible upper glenoid fracture. This is a fracture that occurs in the socket of the shoulder joint.

9. Mrs O was seen by an orthopaedic consultant and was advised there was no fracture, and to undergo physiotherapy.

10. Since then, Mrs O has been undergoing physiotherapy as she says she suffers from limited movement, pain and stiffness. Mrs O went to her GP who referred her to an orthopaedic consultant. During her appointment with the consultant on 10 January 2025 Mrs O was informed the x-rays from 10 January 2025 showed a displaced shoulder socket fracture that had healed in the wrong position with the bone fragments misaligned.

11. Mrs O was told as her fracture had healed; the surgical option would be a shoulder replacement. She was told her fracture could have originally been treated without surgery because it was not displaced.

12. Mrs O decided to try a glenohumeral joint injection, which is when medicine is injected directly into the shoulder joint to reduce pain, inflammation and help with diagnosis. Unfortunately, the injection did not help.

15. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances.

16. We have discussed this with Mrs O to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

17. Mrs O tells us the Trust failed to correctly identify and diagnose a break to the upper glenoid bone and did not conduct the relevant tests or scans when they recalled her to the Trust. As a result of this, Mrs O says she suffers from pain and limited movement in her right shoulder and her bone has healed misaligned. Mrs O believes she will never regain full movement in her right shoulder.

18. Based on the available information, it appears there is potentially a clinical negligence action open to her. Negligence, in law, is an act of failure to act (omission), that does not meet the level of appropriate care expected, which results in injury or loss. If a doctor or health professional is negligent when giving you medical treatment, this is called ‘clinical negligence’.

19. Usually, most court redress is financial. Other remedies in the form of apologies and service improvements may occur incidentally as a by-product of a legal claim. Mrs O is seeking a financial remedy, an apology and service improvements. Whilst apologies and service improvements are not always directly achievable through the court they may be achieved as a biproduct if a legal claim is successful. If Mrs O does not achieve these outcomes through legal action, she can promptly return to our office, and we will consider whether to carry out an investigation.

20. Mrs O has confirmed she has engaged a solicitor to pursue a legal remedy. We therefore deem it is reasonable for Mrs O to pursue a legal remedy, and we will not be taking any further action on her complaint.

21. We realise how difficult and upsetting this matter is for Mrs O and we thank her for bringing her complaint to us. We wish her well for the future.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust (the Trust). We were sorry to hear how Mrs O has been affected. It is clear she had a difficult and upsetting experience.

2. We consider it reasonable for Mrs O to explore legal action on the matters she has brought to us. We will explain the reasons for our decision in this statement.

3. Complaints give us valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, so we would like to thank Mrs O for sharing her experience with us.