Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr A complains about an unsuccessful operation on 20 January 2022 to remove an obstruction from his nose. He says after the operation his nose would not stop bleeding and the consultant said they could try another operation. Mr A complains that from start to finish the service was poor and the consultant was rude and had poor communication skills.

4. Mr A says because of this experience he still cannot breathe correctly and can only sleep on one side. This affects his working life and he worries he could get injured and would need more surgery. He feels let down by the Trust.

5. Mr A wants financial payment of about £2,995.

7. The law that says we cannot investigate complaints that come to us more than a year after the person became aware of a reason to complain, unless there is good reason to.

8. Mr A explains he first started to experience ongoing pain around January 2022, a few days after his operation.

9. Mr A told us at first he thought this was normal post-operative pain, but the pain continued. He had to go to the emergency department at the end of January 2022 and was seen again in early February, March and May. He said he raised concerns verbally.

10. He made a formal complaint to the Trust on 10 May 2023 and it replied on 7 June. Mr A then complained to us on 20 June 2023.

11. Mr A was aware of the need to complain on 26 January 2022. By law he had until 26 January 2023 to first complain to the Trust and then come to us once this was complete. When he came to us on 20 June 2023, his complaint was out of time by almost five months.

12. Mr A took fifteen months to make a formal complaint to the Trust. We tried to better understand the reasons for Mr A’s delay. Mr A explains he was being told the operation would need to settle down, so the complaint got pushed to the back of his mind. He said he wanted to have the final consultation to see if there were any alternatives to his treatment. He was last seen by his consultant on 27 April 2023. He said COVID-19 backlogs caused a delay in seeing his consultant sooner.

13. Mr A says he then made the decision to complain to the Trust on 10 May 2023. This was because of realising his consultant was not being helpful in giving him treatment options and he felt disillusioned.

14. It took 28 days for the Trust to reply to the complaint. This means the Trust did not delay Mr A from coming to us.

15. We accept some time would be needed for things to settle after the operation, but we think Mr A could have made his complaint sooner than he did.

16. We recognise Mr A wanted to discuss his treatment with the consultant, but this did not mean he had to do this before making a complaint.

17. We recognise the ongoing concerns Mr A has but we have not seen good reason to put our time limit to one side and we will not be taking any further action.

1. We are sorry to learn Mr A experienced pain and ongoing issues after an operation by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) to remove an obstruction from his nose on 20 January 2022. We understand this has been a very difficult time for him.

2. After careful consideration, we cannot investigate this complaint because it is outside of the one-year time limit to bring a complaint to us. We have considered Mr A’s reasons for the delays in complaining to the Trust and then coming to us, but we have not seen good reason to put the time limit to one side. We explain our decision below.