An eye clinic in the Exeter area

2. Mrs I complains on 15 March 2021 the clinic damaged her eye during cataract surgery. She says the surgeon mistakenly referred to someone else’s medical records and told her they incorrectly cut into the white of her eye. She also complains the aftercare was not good and made the long-term impact of the poor surgery worse.

3. Mrs I says she has been left with long term eye pain, headaches and the need to wear sunglasses in any light above very low light conditions.

4. Mrs I is looking for financial compensation equal to the long-term pain and distress she has experienced.

Mistakes made by the surgeon

7. When considering complaints, we must carry out checks to make sure that the complaint falls within our powers to consider under the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993. One of those checks is to consider whether it is reasonable to take a legal route to pursue the complaint.

8. Section 4 of Health Service Commissioner Act 1993 says we cannot investigate a complaint if there is, or was, a legal route a person could pursue, unless it is (or was) not reasonable for them to do this.

9. We have discussed this with Mrs I, who told us she would like to prove that clinical negligence occurred. While we can look at what has gone wrong in care, we are not able to look at claims for clinical negligence as this is something that can only be done by a court. Also, we can see she is claiming a failing in her clinical care which led to long term pain and injury. As she is looking for financial compensation, there is a legal route open to her. Mrs I explained she is looking for £3000 or more. This can be pursued by taking a legal route.

10. We also considered whether legal action would achieve everything Mrs I is hoping to achieve. Mrs I explained she does not accept the clinic’s apology or promise of service improvements to stop this happening to others and she only wants financial compensation for the pain, suffering and vision problems she is experiencing.

11. If we were to look at this, such an injury may be considered a level five financial remedy (£3000 - £9,950) on our severity of injustice scale. This is based on Mrs I explaining the impact has had a marked and damaging effect on her vision and she has no chance of recovery. If we found failings in the care with a link to how Mrs I has been affected, we may be able to achieve this amount of compensation. Mrs I told us she is willing to review what she wants financially and come back to us if she has not been able to take legal action.

12. We went on to consider whether there were any further barriers to Mrs I taking legal action. Mrs I said she was willing to take legal advice, and could see no barrier to doing this.

13. In line with our legislation where it is an option for someone to take legal action, we expect them to, unless it is unreasonable. As it seems reasonable for Mrs I to explore legal action, we consider that the most suitable action.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs I’s complaint about an eye clinic in the Exeter area (the clinic). We are sorry to hear about her experiences and ongoing vision problems. We have decided it is not unreasonable for Mrs I to take legal action to take her complaint further.