ADHD assessment in April 2024
9. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 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.
10. In reaching our decision, we consider all delays incurred in the complaint process. This includes consideration of how long the complainant, and the Trust took, and where delays may be present, if the reasons for delay are justified. Mrs U’s complaint form says the issue about the ADHD assessment happened on 19 April 2024.
11. She says she became aware of the issue on 8 May 2024 when she received the ADHD assessment report. This was when she had reason to complain about the issues, and we expect her bring the complaint to us by May 2025. Mrs U formally complained to the Trust in September 2024, and it responded on 18 November 2024.
12. Mrs U complained further on 29 November 2024. She attended a local resolution meeting (LRM) with the Trust in February 2025. The Trust provided its final response on 17 March 2025, and Mrs U received this on 20 March 2025. We can see the Trust responded in a reasonable time within two to four months each time Mrs U complained to it. Mrs U complained to us on 1 July 2025.
13. This means her complaint is almost two months outside of our time limit. There is a gap of over three months from when Mrs U received the Trust’s final response in March 2025 and when the advocate submitted her complaint to us on her behalf. We discussed this with Mrs U to understand the reasons why she could not bring her complaint to us earlier.
14. In Mrs U’s complaint form to us she says there was a delay due to her scheduled operation for 3 April 2025 which was delayed and re-scheduled for 24 April 2025. She says she had to physically and mentally recover from this as she is more easily triggered following her previous medical experiences with the Trust. Mrs U told us she needed three months to recover from her hysterectomy operation in April 2025.
15. Mrs U’s advocate provided further reasons why Mrs U could not complain to us sooner. They said Mrs U was under the impression that surgery would be taking place early April 2025, so she was not in the right frame of mind to pursue the complaint just yet, due to medical trauma. She was worried about the surgery and could not think about anything other than planning for it because she has four children.
16. She had a long recovery period and the occasional complication during it. It was only in the last month or two (around October or November 2025) when she felt almost back to normal. They said Mrs U was under a lot of emotional stress at the time the complaint was ongoing, and it was a difficult time for her.
17. In Mrs U’s email of 6 January 2026, she told us the same advocate dealing with this complaint was also helping her deal with another complaint against a different Trust about a confrontational and aggressive member of staff. In addition, she had a dispute with another Trust about historic inaccuracies in her medical records.
18. She said a mental health charity is currently supporting her with the dispute. She confirmed she is overwhelmed as an autistic and ADHD individual with other complex medical needs. She has social care needs whilst managing multiple disabled children. The advocate said they were on annual leave for several days during the Easter break (April 2025) and a week in May 2025.
19. We recognise Mrs U says the issue with the Trust is important to her due to the lasting effects the experience left her in and the delay in treatment. We understand it can be very overwhelming bringing and dealing with multiple complaints to organisations, in particular as she is a neurodiverse individual, has other medical needs whilst managing her disabled children.
20. We acknowledge Mrs U experienced a difficult time with her mental and physical health during the complaints process with the Trust, preparing for and recovering from her scheduled surgery in April 2025. We are pleased to hear Mrs U has been able to get advocacy support and assistance with her current and previous complaints and dispute with different organisations.
21. From review of the available information, we do not think the above reasons indicates a significant barrier which prevented her from bringing the complaint to us sooner as she had assistance from an advocate from June 2024. We understand Mrs U had to prepare for the surgery in April 2025 and the advocate had some time off then and in May 2025.
22. We can see that Mrs U was aware of us since September 2024 when the Trust acknowledged her complaint. She was still unhappy and concerned following the LRM with the Trust in February 2025. The role of an advocate is to help individuals to understand their rights and make informed decisions. In this case, understanding the complaints process and our time limits.
23. We do not consider the reasons provided are sufficient for us to set aside our time limit. Therefore, we will not consider the complaint further. We accept Mrs U struggled with her mental and physical health before, during and after the complaints process. We are glad she was able to get the support from various organisations. We thank Mrs U for bringing these concerns to our attention.