Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs C complains about a cataract operation at the Trust on 27 April 2021 (surgery to replace the cloudy lens inside the eye with an artificial one). She says a supervised junior doctor did the operation and made mistakes. Mrs C says this caused her to lose some sight and become disorientated. She would like an acknowledgement of failings and financial compensation.

6. 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.

7. We have discussed this with Mrs C to understand the reasons why she could not complain sooner. We have also considered the time the Trust took to reply to Mrs C.

8. Mrs C knew there was a problem on 27 April 2021 when she had the operation. This means to be within our time limit she needed to come to us by 27 April 2022. She brought her complaint to us on 16 February 2023. Her complaint is ten months outside of our time limit.

9. Mrs C complained to the doctor in her follow up appointments in May, June and November 2021. The Trust’s complaints team have confirmed this and that the doctor addressed these concerns clinically during the appointments.

10. Mrs C made a formal complaint to the Trust on 16 February 2022, ten months after having the operation and knowing she felt she had reason to complain. The Trust sent a response on 20 April 2022. Mrs C raised more concerns on 22 May and the Trust sent a final response on 22 May 2022. The Trust’s quick responses mean it did not stop Mrs C from coming to us sooner.

11. We can see that when the Trust sent both response letters it included information about our service. Both Trust’s responses say we may be able to help by independently reviewing the case. The letters also say they have included a leaflet with information about our role and the contact details.

12. We understand the difficulties Mrs C has faced since her operation. But there was an eight-month delay in bringing the complaint to us after getting the Trust’s final response and this is a long time. Mrs C has shown she was able to make a complaint and go through the process resolution. We have also seen that Mrs C has support to help with the complaint process.

13. Having considered these factors we have not seen enough evidence to suggest we should put our time limit aside. There was a long gap where Mrs C was able to complain to us but she did not.

14. It is important we consider and act within the law and we regret any further upset this decision may cause. We hope this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering this complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs C’s complaint about Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We are very sorry to hear about her experience. Mrs C told us she has lost some sight and has become disorientated since her operation at the Trust. We recognise Mrs C has been through a distressing time.

2. We have decided to take no further action because Mrs C’s complaint falls outside our 12-month time limit. In reaching this decision, we have considered what Mrs C told us about the reasons for any delays and the time it took for the Trust to reply to her complaint.