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. We have spoken to Mrs X to ask why she could not complain to us sooner. We have also looked at the time the Trust took to respond to Mrs X.
8. Mrs X says she was not happy with the hysteroscopy on 29 December 2020 because she experienced pain and discomfort. She said after the procedure, she complained straight away. She says the consultant said she was an ‘unlucky patient’ and it is it is not normal for a person to feel pain during a hysteroscopy.
9. Mrs X said she felt ignored. She said she was not happy but she believed the consultant’s explanation.
10. Mrs X says in 2022, she looked into hysteroscopy procedures online. She said she found she was not an ‘unlucky patient’, but many women had the same experience as her. Mrs X says she felt like a ‘fool’ to take the gynaecologist’s explanation, and this led her to making a complaint.
11. We appreciate what Mrs X told us. We think Mrs X should have complained after having the hysteroscopy. She did not complain to the Trust until 15 March 2022. This is 15 months after she knew there was a problem.
12. Mrs X has not told us about any other reasons which stopped her from making her complaint to the Trust sooner. For these reasons, we cannot put our time limit to one side. We hope we have clearly explained why we cannot investigate this complaint.