3. Ms A complains about the care provided to her by the first Trust after she gave birth to twins in 2008.
4. Ms A complains about the care provided to her by the second Trust after the death of her daughter in 2006. Ms A also complains about the care provided to her by the second Trust after the birth of her son in 2007.
5. Ms A complains about the care provided to her by the third Trust in relation to uncertainty about her cancer diagnosis from 2019 until 2024.
6. Ms A says that she began having problems with NHS care after the birth of her first child in 2003. She had further problems after the sad death of her daughter in 2006, the birth of her son in 2007, and after she gave birth to twins in 2008.
7. Ms A received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2019. Over the next five years, Ms A had successful treatment, but she says there was considerable uncertainty throughout this period about the extent of her cancer which has caused great distress for Ms A and her family.
8. Overall, Ms A says she was being intentionally abused and targeted by NHS staff at various settings during this episode of care. Nevertheless, Ms A says she did not realise she was being intentionally abused and targeted until 2024 which is over 20 years after the date of the first documented problem.
10. 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 do so. We have put this to Ms A to understand the reasons why she could not do so.
11. Although Ms A says that her problems with the NHS originated in 2003, she also says in her Ombudsman complaint form that she did not become aware of any problems with care until 4 August 2024. Ms A says she did not realise she was being intentionally abused and targeted. Once she did, Ms A says she raised complaints with the NHS and the police.
12. Ms A says she complained to the NHS on 4 July 2024 which is prior to her date of awareness on 4 August 2024. We have not seen a copy of Ms A’s original complaint, but we have seen copies of replies that she got from three NHS Trusts’ to her concerns.
13. The reply that Ms A received from the first Trust is dated 23 December 2024. The complaint is about care provided to Ms A after she gave birth to twins in 2008. Given this, it is unclear why Ms A did not know about a problem with her care at the time or shortly afterwards. We asked Ms A to explain why she did not become aware of this until much later (not until 2024), but she did not reply.
14. The replies that Ms A received from the second Trust are dated 19 June and 5 November 2024. This complaint is about the sad death of Ms A’s daughter in 2006, and the care provided to her after the birth of her son in 2007. Again, it is unclear why Ms A did not know about a problem with this care at the time or shortly afterwards. We asked Ms A to explain why she did not become aware of this until much later (not until 2024), but she did not reply.
15. The reply that Ms A received from the third Trust is dated 26 April 2024. This complaint is about Ms A’s cancer care including uncertainty about her diagnosis from 2019 to 2024. It was more likely that some of this complaint could be in time for our consideration, but there were also indications in the complaint response that Ms A raised verbal concerns with clinicians in 2021, 2022 and 2023 about her cancer care. Therefore, we consider Ms A could have raised a complaint with the third Trust sooner than she did. We asked Ms A to explain why she did not raise a complaint with the third Trust sooner than she did, but she did not reply.
16. Unfortunately, Ms A’s complaints about the first and second Trusts are significantly out of time as the relevant events occurred between 2006 and 2008. Ms A has failed to explain why she did not become aware of a problem in relation to these complaints until 2024, many years later. Ms A’s complaint about the third Trust is more recent originating in 2019 until 2024, but there are indications in the complaint response that she knew about problems with her cancer care before 2024, so Ms A could have complained about this sooner than she did. As before, Ms A has failed to explain why she did not do this.
17. Given Ms A’s lack of response, we do not know what happened on 4 August 2024 that made her belatedly aware of problems with care provided to her and potentially some of her children. Some of this care was many years ago and could have been complained about much sooner than it was. Therefore, without further explanation from Ms A about the delays in submitting her complaints to the NHS, we do not have grounds to consider waiving the time limit for any of her complaints. Given this, our decision is that all three of Ms A’s complaints are out of time for our consideration.
1. We have carefully considered Ms A’s complaints regarding care provided to her by the three NHS Trusts.’
-The complaints fall outside of our time limit, and we have decided there is no good reason for us to put our time limit aside to consider them further.
2. We acknowledge the sad and difficult circumstances around Ms A’s complaints, and we recognise that Ms A will be disappointed by our decision that her complaints are out of time.