University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

2. Mrs G complains about the care and treatment University Hospital of North Midlands NHS Trust provided to her husband, Mr B, between August and September 2024. Specifically she complains the Trust: • delayed arranging her husband’s follow up appointment on discharge from hospital and inappropriately carried this out virtually instead of in person • did not act on his symptoms appropriately or escalate his care.

3. Mrs G explains her husband deteriorated and died and she says his death was avoidable. This has caused extreme distress and suffering.

4. Mrs G would like the Trust to apologise, make service improvements and provide a financial remedy.

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

8. When we discussed this with Mrs G, she explained she is yet to explore legal action or speak with any solicitors and this is something she is interested in pursuing. As set out above, the law sets out somebody should take legal action in the first instance before coming to us.

9. We are mindful Mrs G is seeking a mix of outcomes, and these are all important to her. As this includes seeking a financial remedy, legal action is often best placed to achieve a more significant financial remedy.

10. As Mrs G would like to explore this option, we think this is reasonable at this time. We have not seen any barriers to this. We hope this is helpful for her and achieves the outcomes she is seeking. If her circumstances change, she may be able to return to us for our consideration.

11. We thank Mrs G for taking the time to talk to us and we were sorry to learn of the reasons for her complaint. We hope we have explained the reasons for our decision clearly to not consider the complaint further at this time.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs G’s complaint about the Trust. We would like to extend our condolences to her for the loss of her husband. We understand her complaint is important to her. We have decided not to consider the complaint further at this time, as Mrs G would like to explore legal action in the first instance.