Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

3. Ms P complains about the care Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (the Trust) provided to her daughter, Miss P between February and July 2023. She says the Trust:

• delayed diagnosing her daughter’s cancer • inappropriately stopped treatment after two days • failed to properly control her daughter’s pain

4. Ms P says as a result, her daughter very sadly died and was in additional pain. She says this has caused significant distress and trauma to her and the rest of the family.

5. Ms P is seeking service improvements and a financial remedy.

7. The Health Service Commissioner Act 1993 (the law) says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Ms P to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

8. Ms P says the Trust provided poor care and treatment to her daughter, which caused her very sad death. It appears Ms P could potentially pursue a clinical negligence claim. In line with our legislation, we have considered whether it would be reasonable for her to do so.

9. Ms P says she would be looking for a financial remedy of approximately £12500. We do not consider compensation in the same way as the courts and the amounts we can recommend are typically more modest in comparison. A court would be able to carefully consider and assess an appropriate amount of compensation. We would not want to disadvantage Ms P by ‘under settling’ the claim when it would be more appropriate for her to go through a legal process.

10. Ms P is also seeking service improvements as an outcome to her complaint. Whilst this this is not the main focus of a legal claim; service improvements can often be a by-product of successful legal action.

11. Ms P tells us she has instructed a solicitor to pursue a clinical negligence claim, and they are currently conducting enquiries. Given Ms P has already started a legal claim and there are no barriers to her proceeding with this, we consider it is reasonable for her to continue with this, to potentially achieve the outcomes she is seeking. We would not investigate a complaint at the same time legal action is ongoing. If there are any outstanding outcomes that cannot be achieved through the legal claim or if Ms P finds she is unable to pursue her legal claim further, she can bring the complaint back to us to consider further.

12. We understand how important Ms P’s complaint is to her and we thank her for taking the time to bring it to us.

1. We have carefully considered Ms P’s complaint about Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (the Trust). We are very sorry to hear about Ms P’s concerns and appreciate it has been an incredibly distressing and difficult time for her and her family.

2. We consider Ms P could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us, and we will not take any further action at this stage.