Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust

3. Miss A complains the Trust failed to conduct sufficient investigations into pain in her thyroid when she was referred in October 2019. Miss A says the Trust said there was no issue with her thyroid.

4. Miss A says she is in pain, and this has affected her social and working life.

5. Miss A wants to see service improvements, so this does not happen to other people

7. The law says people need to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot consider complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so. We have discussed this with Miss A to understand the reasons she could not bring her complaint to us within a year. We have also considered the time the organisation has taken to respond to Miss A, and any other relevant information.

8. Miss A raised her complaint with the Trust in March 2021, once she had received the required referral and treatment. She said she only wanted to complain because she felt her situation was worse. The Trust had responded by July 2021, and she complained to us in September 2021.

9. While we appreciate Miss A’s pain became worse over time, we consider Miss A had the opportunity to raise her complaint as soon as she was aware the Trust was not going to examine her, following the referral. That was in October 2019. There were no obstacles to prevent her from doing this.

10. Miss A was aware the Trust did not take the referral any further in October 2019. She had concerns at the time and could have raised them then. By the time she raised her complaint to the Trust it was already five months outside of our time limit.

11. Overall, Miss A’s complaint is 11 months out of time. We are not persuaded Miss A has given sufficient reason for us to set our time limit aside. We will therefore take no further action on her complaint.

1. We have carefully considered Miss A’s complaint about Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We have reviewed the information she provided and have decided not to consider her complaint further. This is because of the time that has passed since the events she complained about.

2. We were sorry to hear about the pain Miss A has experienced, and the effect that has had on her. 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 your complaint.