George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust

3. Mrs A complains about the care and treatment her mother, Mrs O, received at the Trust during her admission from 22 February 2024 to 16 May 2024.

4. Mrs A complains the Trust: • Failed to manage and treat Mrs O’s pressure sores • made Mrs O nil by mouth for a number of days • failed to carry out Mrs O’s hip replacement • discharged her mother when she should have remained in hospital.

5. Mrs A says her mother died as a cumulation of the Trust’s failings. She says her mother experienced pain, frustration and distress during her admission at the Trust. Mrs A also says her mother’s failed discharge meant she was discharged to an environment which was not suitable for her needs.

6. Mrs A would like £500,000 as a financial remedy.

9. 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.

10. We have discussed this with Mrs A to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she seeks. We do not consider if legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

11. In general terms, clinical negligence takes place when a person suffers harm because of mistakes in their care and treatment. Failure to carry out appropriate treatment can also amount to negligence. Clinical negligence can only be established by the courts.

12. Mrs A believes her mother died because of the failings in the care and treatment she received from the Trust. If she is correct and there were significant failings in Mrs O’s care which caused her death, Mrs A may have a legal action for clinical negligence available to her.

13. We understand Mrs A feels strongly the cumulation of failings meant Mrs O’s health deteriorated, subsequently leading to her death. Mrs A is seeking a financial remedy as an outcome for her mother’s death.

14. Where people have the option to pursue legal action, the law says we should expect them to do so first, rather than look at the complaint ourselves.

15. A court will be able to carefully consider and assess if Mrs O’s care and treatment was negligent and if her death can be attributed to that, as well as determining the accountability, including awarding an appropriate amount of compensation.

16. In Mrs A’s complaint form she said she was seeking a financial remedy as an outcome. As part of our enquiries, we asked Mrs A how much compensation she was seeking, and she confirmed approximately £500,000. This falls into level 6 on our Severity of Injustice scale (SOI).

17. Based on this, we can see Mrs A seeks a significant amount of money and so we would consider it reasonable to say this is an important outcome to her. Mrs A may be able to achieve more compensation through a legal approach than we might if we were to uphold the complaint, and we want to ensure she has the best opportunity to achieve this.

18. We asked Mrs A whether there was anything preventing her from pursuing a clinical negligence claim. Mrs A said the cost of pursuing a claim would be a barrier. However, Mrs A is aware there are ‘no win, no fee’ solicitors available and has confirmed she would be happy to consider this as an option.

19. Mrs A did not tell us about any other barriers to her seeking legal advice.

20. In summary, we understand the impact Mrs A claims is significant. Mrs A seeks a significant amount of compensation and is willing to speak to solicitors and, the outcome she seeks can be achieved by the legal route.

21. We understand Mrs A is within the time limit to pursue a legal claim and we do not consider there are any barriers to her pursuing this. On this basis, we consider it reasonable for Mrs A to explore this avenue first. We believe this is the best option for Mrs A, given the severity of her complaint.

22. If, after fully exploring legal action, Mrs A is not able to pursue it or does not achieve the outcomes she seeks, she can bring her complaint back to us and we will consider it again. At that point, we would need to carefully consider the outcome of any legal enquiries and the time she has taken to complain to us. This is because we have a time limit of one year.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust). We were very sorry to hear about the concerns Mrs A has brought to us about for the incredibly sad loss of her mother, Mrs O. We do not wish to underestimate how difficult this time has been for Mrs A.

2. We decided to take no further action on Mrs A’s complaint, for the time being at least. This is because we consider it to be reasonable for Mrs A to take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.