North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

3. Miss O complains about aspects of care and treatment she received during labour on 8 and 9 June 2023. Specifically, she says the Trust:

• administered induction hormones incorrectly when they were not needed and removed them painfully • left a cannula in her hand for longer than required • told her she was not a priority for induction • administered an epidural incorrectly • struggled to break her waters without checking her daughter’s position, ignored her telling it she was in pain, and cut her daughter’s head with the device.

4. Miss O says the events have led to her being experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety and has been prescribed anti-depressants which she is dependent on and have caused some side effects. She is on the waiting list for counselling and says her mental and physical health has deteriorated and thus, her quality of life has been affected. She says she has decided to not have any more children because of the events.

5. She was in pain while the Trust was using the water breaking device without checking the positioning. This left her daughter with bruises and cuts on her scalp and forehead that have left permanent scars, and she experienced unnecessary blood loss.

6. Shortly after the Trust broke her waters her daughter’s heart rate dropped. Staff responded extremely quickly but this caused Miss O to experience distress. Miss O says she has struggled to bond fully with and look after her daughter due to the events.

7. Miss O says she will need physiotherapy and has been given supportive aids from her local council due to back pain caused by this being poorly placed by the Trust. She now needs adaptations to use the bath and toilet. She has been left with ongoing pain in her wrists and veins from a cannula and needs to take pain medication. She says the unnecessary use of induction hormones was severely painful at the time as was the abrupt removal and this has caused lasting incontinence. Miss O says the events have caused her and her daughter long term harm and her disability.

8. Miss O seeking a financial remedy and service improvements as an outcome to her complaint.

11. 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 discussed this with Miss O to understand the reasons why she could not do so. We have also considered the time the Trust has taken to respond to Miss O.

12. The events Miss O complains about happened at the start of June 2023. For us to consider whether a complaint is out of time, we look at the date at which Miss O could be expected to be aware of the concerns raised. Miss O says this is the same date when the events happened in early June 2023.

13. To be within our time limit Miss O would have needed to bring her complaint to us by June 2024. Her complaint is nearly five months outside our time limit. We asked Miss O why she did not bring her complaint to us sooner.

14. Miss O says she raised concerns with the Trust informally soon after the events but this was not taken seriously by the Trust. She then raised a formal complaint with the Trust on 27 January 2024, over seven months after she was aware of the concerns raised in her complaint.

15. Miss O contacted our office with her complaint on 29 October 2024 on completion of the Trust’s complaints process.

16. Miss O says the reasons for the delay in her raising a formal complaint was because she was a victim of domestic violence along with a deterioration of her mental health that continued to cause her distress. We recognise how distressing this was for Miss O. Some of the reasons Miss O provided date back several years before these events, as per her contact with us about another case.

17. We have not seen anything that changed between Miss O’s date of knowledge in June 2023 and when she did eventually complain to the Trust on 27 January 2024.

18. Miss O says she complained to the Trust verbally soon after the events but she did not follow this up with a formal complaint via the Trust’s complaints process. We have seen no evidence of contact with the Trust after the events in June 2023 until Miss O raised a complaint in January 2024. We have no reason to doubt her account that she made a verbal complaint, but she took no action to follow that up.

19. We consider Miss O could have raised a formal complaint sooner than she did in January 2024. We are not persuaded Miss O has given sufficient reasons for the delay for us to put the time limit to one side. We will therefore take no further action on her complaint.

20. Once again, we are sorry to hear about the problems Miss O experienced during the birth of her daughter, and the impact that had on her and her family. We are grateful to Miss O for bringing her concerns to our attention.

1. We have carefully considered Miss O’s complaint about North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust). The complaint falls outside of our time limit and we have decided there is no good reason for us to put our time limit aside to consider it further.

2. We are sorry to hear about Miss O’s experience and the impact the events as outlined in the complaint had on her. We acknowledge how upsetting and distressing this time was for Miss O. We understand our decision may be disappointing, but we will explain the reasons for this and the factors we have considered in our primary investigation of her complaint.