7.The Act, which gives us our powers to consider complaints, 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 can see that Miss X became aware of cause for complaint in February 2023, when these events happened, and complained to us in June 2025. This means his complaint is one year outside of our limit.
8.We have therefore discussed this with Miss X to understand the reasons she could not have complained to us sooner. We have also considered the time the Trust took to respond to Miss X.
9.Miss X became aware of cause for complaint after she gave birth in February 2023 and complained to the Trust six months later, in August 2023. The Trust provided a complaint response in August 2023, after completing an investigation under the NHS Serious Incident Framework, and met with Miss X the same month. Miss X brought her complaint to us in June 2025. This means there was a period of almost two years between completing the complaints process with the Trust and bringing her complaint to us.
10.We asked Miss X the reason for not making the complaint to us sooner than she did. Miss X explained she was suffering with grief and depression after her baby’s death. She tells us this caused a delay in making a complaint.
11.We fully recognise that Miss X was deeply affected by the loss of her baby, and this was clearly a very difficult time for her. Our decision is in no way intended to suggest otherwise. In considering our time limit we have thought only about whether this meant she was unable to complain sooner.
12. We can see that Miss X sought legal advice after the Trust provided its response in August 2023. She tells us she went a solicitor after receiving her response from the Trust as she believed the Trust had told her to. She said the Trust had never mentioned our Office, and she was not aware of us until she conducted her own research recently.
13. We explained to Miss X that we can see the August 2023 response letter provides signposting to us as the next stage of the NHS complaints process, and shared our contact details, so we cannot set our time limit aside on this basis. We can also see that she was able to explore her concerns with a solicitor, and so we can see there was no barrier to her contacting us during this period about her complaint and earlier than June 2025.
13. With the above in mind, we have not seen reasons that might allow us to put the time limit to one side and so we will take no further action with this complaint. We appreciate this will be disappointing news to Miss X, and we thank her for giving us the opportunity to consider her concerns.