County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs O complains about the care her mother, Miss L received from County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust between July and September 2024. Specifically, she complains about the care her mother received at home from the Trust’s District Nursing team during this time. She complains the team;

• did not report concerns regarding the conditions she was living in to her social worker • did not take care of her personal hygiene as it should have and left her covered in dirt and faeces • did not report concerning symptoms of organ failure such as loss of appetite and jaundice skin • inappropriately gave her canesten cream for blisters and bleeding sores on 10 September • did not collect blood and urine samples so further testing could be done following GP’s advice on 16 September 2024.

4. Mrs O also complains about a GP Practice in the Durham area’s care of her mother. Specifically, she says the Practice did not carry out the relevant blood tests it should have the week before she died.

5. Mrs O says the neglect of the Trust and GP Practice allowed her mother’s condition to deteriorate and the lack of tests by the GP led to a delayed diagnosis of sepsis and missed opportunity for earlier intervention and treatment. She believes both the Trust’s community nursing team and the GP Practice contributed to her mother’s death and believes she would still be here if she had been cared for appropriately. She says she and her brother have been left devastated and traumatised by their mother’s death.

6. As a result of bringing this complaint to us, Mrs O is seeking apologies and financial remedy exceeding level 6 of our scale.

7. Mrs O’s mother, Miss L suffered with diabetes and liver disease.

8. Miss L experienced a diabetes related ‘Hypoglycemia’ coma in January 2024 which left her with brain damage. Hypoglycemia is a condition of low blood sugar that can lead to a diabetic coma, which is a severe state of unconsciousness resulting from dangerously high or low blood sugar levels. Miss L was cared for in hospital in the weeks after this episode and then moved to a care home.

9. Miss L was discharged from the care home back to her own home on 1 July 2024 where care was provided by the Trust’s community nursing team who visited twice a day.

10. Miss L was found unresponsive at home on 21 September 2024 and admitted as an emergency to hospital the same day where she was diagnosed with kidney injury, liver disease and possible sepsis. She sadly died in hospital the following day.

11. Mrs O complained to the Trust on 9 October 2024. The Trust sent its final response on 6 January 2025 and Mrs O brought the complaint to us on 30 September 2025.

13. 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 O 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.

14. Mrs O says both the Trust and the Practice were negligent in their care of her mother. She says her mother was denied treatment that could have improved her condition, and this ultimately caused her death. Mrs O says lack of intervention and blood tests meant her mother did not get the timely care and treatment she needed and if she had had this then her life could have been saved. We consider she could have a legal route available, namely a clinical negligence claim.

15. Mrs O says the loss of her mother has had a massive impact on her and her family and they have been left devastated and traumatised by how events unfolded.

16. Mrs O is seeking apologies and a financial remedy exceeding level 6 of our scale. The amount of financial remedy Mrs O seeks is at the highest end of our severity of injustice scale, level 6. A court would be able to carefully consider and assess an appropriate amount of compensation for the impact Mrs O says this had. We would not want to disadvantage her by ‘under settling’ the complaint or proceed with an investigation, as we are unlikely to achieve the level of financial remedy she is looking for.

17. Mrs O is also seeking apologies. While legal action would focus on financial remedy it may also achieve an apology as a by-product of this claim.

18. We asked Mrs O if she had any barriers that would make it difficult or prevent her from pursuing legal action. She has not told us of any.

19. Taking all of this into account, we believe it is reasonable for Mrs O to pursue legal action. We have decided not to consider the complaint further on these grounds. The courts can independently review the complaint and decide whether there has been clinical negligence, and, if so, decide on what amount of financial compensation would be appropriate. We hope this helps Mrs O to progress her complaint and to achieve the outcomes she is seeking.

20. If Mrs O finds she does not have a legal route, she may come back to us, and we could potentially consider her complaint. Complaints need to be brought to us within one year of the person becoming aware they have reason to complain. We can put our time limit to one side if we consider there is good reason to do so. Mrs O would need to come back to us promptly if she is unsuccessful with her attempts to pursue legal action.

21. Complaints give us a valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, and we recognise this has been a very distressing time for Mrs O. We would like to thank her for sharing her experience with us.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) and a GP Practice in the Durham area (the Practice). We were very sorry to hear about the loss of her mother and the circumstances of the complaint.

2. We have decided not to consider Mrs O’s complaint any further. This is because we have decided it is reasonable for Mrs O to pursue a legal remedy.