York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mrs A complains about the care and treatment provided to her husband, Mr A, by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) in May 2024. She complains in the four days following his ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography) surgery, the surgical team did not listen to his and his families concerns regarding his deteriorating condition and provide appropriate intervention and treatment.

4. Mrs A says the Trust’s lack of timely intervention led to complications he suffered of pancreatitis, a collection of fluid in the abdomen and a perforated bowel. Mrs A says prior to his treatment from the Trust, Mr R was fit and healthy but now he suffers with day-to-day pain, nausea, sickness, lack of sleep, weight and muscle loss and general depleted health. She says his mental health is also suffering as he is now anxious about his recovery and longer-term health.

5. As a result of bringing this complaint to us, Mrs A is seeking accountability from the Trust in the form of an apology and financial remedy.

6. Mr R and Mrs A reside in Scotland, and they were visiting England in May last year when Mr R became unwell with abdominal pain. He was admitted via ambulance to hospital on 11 May 2024.

7. Mr R underwent an ERCP procedure on 15 May 2024 to remove gallstones.

8. Mrs R says he suffered complications following the surgery including pancreatitis, a collection of fluid on his abdomen and a perforated bowel.

9. Mr R was transferred to hospital in Scotland on 12 June 2024 where he underwent further surgery – a Gastrojejunostomy (a surgical procedure that created a new connection between the stomach and the middle section of the intestine).

10. Mrs A complained to the Trust on 31 May 2024 and the Trust sent a response on 2 August. Mrs A wrote back with outstanding concerns on 16 August 2024 and the Trust sent its final response on 22 November 2024. Mrs A brought the complaint to us on 16 July 2025.

12. 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 discussed this with Mrs A to understand the reasons why they could not do so. We have also considered the time the Trust took to respond to Mrs A’s complaint.

13. Mrs A says she and her husband Mr R were aware at the time of events in May 2024 that they were unhappy and had concerns they could complain about.

14. To be within our time limit, Mrs A needed to have complained to us within a year of the event happening, by May 2025.

15. Mrs A brought her complaint to us on 16 July 2025, so her complaint is out of time by 2 months as she brought it to us 14 months after the events.

16. Mrs A complained to the Trust on 31 May 2024, and the Trust sent its initial response on 2 August. Mrs A wrote back with outstanding concerns on 16 August 2024, and the Trust sent its final response on 22 November 2024. Therefore, local resolution took 6 months in total.

17. Mrs A brought the complaint to us on 16 July 2025, 8 months after receiving the final response from the Trust. We asked Mrs A why they could not bring the complaint to us sooner.

18. Mrs A says she and her husband were absolutely exhausted by all they had been through and found it difficult to face revisiting the complaint again having been dismissed and not listened to by the Trust.

19. We asked what, if anything changed in their circumstances that meant they were able to bring the complaint to us when they did in July 2025. Mrs A says she works in the NHS and felt pressure as a nurse herself that she would expect patients to take something like this further and having not got a satisfactory response from the Trust, we were the next option. She also said by this point her husband had started to feel well enough to reflect on everything and after discussing it together they decided to take the complaint further.

20. We can see Mr R gave his consent in May 2024 for the complaint to be raised with the Trust on his behalf by Mrs A, so he was able to understand the situation and communicate whilst very unwell. During the time Mr R was unwell in the early stages of recovery, we can see Mrs A wrote back to the Trust in August 2024 after receiving an initial response she felt was unsatisfactory.

21. Mrs A confirmed in the complaint to us they were immediately unhappy with the complaint response they received from the Trust in November 2024. We can see in its final response the Trust signposted our service as the next step if they were unhappy with its response. Mrs A took on the role of advocate for the complaint on her husband’s behalf with his consent whilst he was unwell in hospital and could have continued to pursue the complaint on his behalf.

22. We appreciate that the complaints process can be difficult, and that Mrs A may have needed a break before submitting her complaint to us. We consider 8 months is a significant period not to pursue the complaint when they were aware they were still unhappy with the response. We consider Mrs A could have come to us earlier, when she and her husband had had chance to reflect.

23. We have seen no strong reason to set aside our time limit on this complaint. Having carefully considered Mrs A’s explanations for not complaining sooner, we do not consider there are sufficient grounds to exercise discretion here. For this reason, we will be taking no further action.

24. While we are unable to take further action, we do not wish to diminish Mr R’s experience and recognise this had a big impact on his life. We thank Mrs A and Mr R for bringing this complaint to us and wish them well for the future.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about the Trust. We were sorry to hear about the circumstances of the complaint, and the impact Mr R has endured.

2. Unfortunately, Mrs A’s complaint falls outside of our 12-month time limit. We have carefully considered all the circumstances of the complaint and have listened to the reasons for delays Mrs A told us about. However, we have not seen good reason to set our time limit to one side. As such, we will not consider her complaint further.