County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

4. Miss A complains about the care and treatment she received for her lower back pain from the Durham Trust, the Gateshead Trust and the Newcastle Trust since 2012. Specifically:

5. She says the Gateshead Trust did not arrange investigative scans, did not consider surgery and discharged her with no explanation.

6. She says the Durham Trust discharged her from pain management with no explanation.

7. She says the Newcastle Trust delayed arranging investigative scans, delayed arranging joint injections and did not consider surgery.

8. Miss A told us the events led to delays in treatment. She also believes if she had been offered surgery sooner, her pain would not be as bad, and she would have a better quality of life.

9. She is now in chronic pain, cannot stand for long periods of time, is unable to work, unable to enjoy hobbies and struggles with daily tasks.

10. Because investigative scans were refused, she paid for a private physiotherapy assessment and a referral for an MRI scan in 2015. She also paid for a private X-ray in 2021 and a further MRI scan in 2022.

11. Miss A wants answers about why she was left waiting so long without treatment or surgery. She wants service improvements and a financial remedy.

12. What follows is a brief background to the complaints process.

13. The events Miss A complains about, relating to all three Trusts, started in 2012. She was seen following a teenage back injury and diagnosed with degenerative disc disease.

14. Miss A raised concerns with the Durham Trust in October 2016 about the care the Durham and Newcastle Trust had provided for her back pain.

15. The Durham Trust shared the information with the Newcastle Trust and asked for its comments.

16. The Newcastle Trust sent a response about the concerns to the Durham Trust in November 2016.

17. The Durham Trust prepared a joint investigation report in December 2016 and sent it to Miss A by post. It signposted her to the Ombudsman.

18. Miss A sent a second complaint to the Newcastle Trust in March 2025, and it responded in May 2025 and signposted to the Ombudsman.

19. She also sent concerns to the Gateshead Trust in June 2025, and it said it would not provide answers to her questions, because the complaint was out of time.

20. She sent her complaint to the Ombudsman in July 2025.

23. 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.

24. We recognise Miss A has had back pain since 2012. Back pain can last a long time and its cause is not always easy to identify. Because of this we can understand why Miss A did not complain between 2012 and 2016. This must have been a difficult time for her.

25. To meet our time limit, Miss A needed to bring her complaint to us in 2017. Her complaint reached us eight years outside of our time limit.

26. We have communicated with Miss A to understand the reasons why she could not complain sooner. We have also considered the time the organisations have taken to respond.

The Durham Trust and the Newcastle Trust

27. We asked Miss A why she did not contact us after the Durham Trust sent its joint investigation report in December 2016. She told us she did not receive the response. She assumed both Trusts had forgotten about her complaint and did not chase this.

28. The Durham Trust sent us a copy of its complaint file. It tells us that it prepared the joint response to Miss A and posted this to her in December 2016. We can see the joint response is addressed to Miss A at her home address at the time.

29. On the balance of probabilities, we consider it more likely than not the Durham Trust sent out the response to Miss A’s complaint in December 2016.

30. We consider if Miss A did not receive this, she could have chased the response. There is no evidence she did this.

The Gateshead Trust

31. We know the Gateshead Trust did not answer Miss A’s questions in June 2025 because it said the complaint was out of time. It said it had considered if it could set this aside, but ten years had passed, and the range of staff involved no longer worked at the Trust.

32. We asked Miss A why she did not raise her concerns with the Gateshead Trust sooner. She said although she was not happy being passed around different departments, she trusted the medical professionals to do the right thing. She also told us she had low mood which meant it was difficult to complain.

33. We recognise she was in pain and this was challenging and impacted her day-to-day life.

34. We cannot say that her pain prevented her from making her complaint to the Gateshead Trust sooner, when she was actively engaged with the Durham and Newcastle Trusts in 2016. We note her concerns are for the same period of time.

35. We consider Miss A could have raised her concerns to the Gateshead Trust sooner.

Additional considerations

36. Miss A told us that she saw a doctor at a different Trust in May 2024. She said the doctor told her that surgery was no longer an option. She explained this is why she raised further concerns with the Newcastle Trust in March 2025. She said she was unable to raise her concerns until she knew this information.

37. We recognise Miss A felt this was new information. From what we have seen, she had overall concerns about her care and treatment for her back pain in 2016.

38. Back pain tends to last a long time and the cause is not always easy to identify. It is our view that this is a continuation of her degenerative condition and from what Miss A has told us, we can see she has not been happy with her care and treatment for a long time.

39. We are not persuaded that this information changes anything. It does not change the fact that Miss A was disappointed in the treatment being provided since 2012 and originally complained about it in 2016.

Summary

40. We are of the view Miss A should have chased Durham Trust for its joint response and she could then have raised her concerns with us after receiving it.

41. If she had contacted us sooner, it is likely we would have considered her complaint about her overall care for her back pain.

42. We are mindful that because of the length of time which has now passed, the evidence available will be limited. The medical staff are unlikely to recall the events, and some may no longer work within the organisations.

43. We have decided not to look at this complaint further. The complaint falls significantly outside of our time limit, and we have decided there is no good reason for us to put our time limit aside.

44. We recognise the pain and upset these concerns have caused Miss A. We know how important her complaint is to her and the difficult experience she has had.

1. We have carefully considered Miss A’s complaint about County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (the Durham Trust), Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust (the Gateshead Trust) and The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Newcastle Trust).

2. We are sorry to hear about what happened and how this led to Miss A’s concerns. We recognise this has been a painful and distressing time for her.

3. We have decided not to look at this complaint further. 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.