7. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 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.
8. Mrs O complains the Trust did not provide the care that her father, Mr I, should have received in July 2022. He sadly died in July 2022. Mrs O was aware of her dissatisfaction about her father’s care at this time.
9. Mrs O brought her concerns to us in late May 2025. We therefore consider her complaint to be out of time by one year and ten months. For her complaint to have been in time, Mrs O would have needed to complain to us by July 2023.
10. We therefore considered the time the Trust took to investigate and respond to her complaint, alongside Mrs O’s reasons for the time she took to approach us.
11. Mrs O initially complained to the Trust in October 2022 and the Trust acknowledged it on the same day. She then had a meeting with the Trust in January 2023 to discuss her complaint and to try and reach a resolution. Mrs O says the meeting was very painful and she was not satisfied with the outcome.
12. The Trust followed this up by sending Mrs O a complaint response letter in early March 2023.
13. Mrs O sent further correspondence to the Trust in March 2023 and it provided a second response letter in May 2023.
14. Mrs O then brought her complaint to us in late May 2025, this is over two years after she got the second response from the Trust.
15. We asked Mrs O for the reasons for the delay in bringing her complaint to us. She said after she exhausted the complaint process with the Trust, she did not have the strength mentally or emotionally to contact us. She said she was heading for a nervous breakdown
16. Mrs O said she became depressed and her relationship with her husband was affected.
17. Mrs O told us she said she found work difficult, but she managed to continue with this.
18. Mrs O also said she looked into taking legal action and contacted a solicitor around the time of the second response letter (May 2023). She also said she looked into this again around March or April 2025, before contacting us.
19. She said she started therapy in June 2024 and only now feels strong enough to bring her complaint to us, although she is still very emotionally affected by the events.
20. We understand the events and the death of her father have had a significant impact on Mrs O and we recognise how difficult it has been for her over the last three years.
21. We also recognise the complaints process with the Trust took nearly seven months. However, even if we considered removed seven months from the overall time, the complaint would still be outside of our time limit.
22. We consider she could have brought her complaint to us sooner, as on several occasions she contacted solicitors to discuss taking legal action. We recognise Mrs O struggled whilst continuing to work but she was also able to do this.
23. There were times when Mrs O was able to complain, as she did with the Trust initially and when she approached the solicitor. We recognise there were times when she was not able to do so, but we cannot say this accounts for the full delay of nearly two years.
24. We also consider that two years is a long time and if Mrs O was unable to complain herself, she could have contacted an advocate or someone else to support her with this.
25. We have carefully considered her reasons for the delays in bringing the complaint to the Trust and we do not consider there are sufficient reasons to put our time limit to one side.
26. We recognise this may be disappointing for Mrs O, we thank her for bringing her complaint to us.