A medical practice in the Richmond area

3. Ms E complains about the care and treatment Mrs B had from the Practice from 10 February 2022 to 4 July 2022.

4. She complains the Practice:

• did not act on the results of the chest X-ray Mrs B had on 28 February 2022 • did not manage Mrs B’s pain • did not manage Mrs B’s paracetamol prescription • treated Mrs B for frozen shoulder instead of cancer.

5. Ms E says that had the Practice acted on the results of the chest X-ray, Mrs B’s lung cancer would have been found earlier. Ms E says that by not managing Mrs B’s pain, she was left ‘in unbearable pain’. Ms E says Mrs B overdosed on paracetamol because the Practice did not manage her paracetamol prescription.

6. Ms E says by treating Mrs B for frozen shoulder instead of cancer, her cancer was caught too late which meant she was too poorly to have treatment. Ms E says Mrs B would still be alive today if the Practice had treated her for cancer. Ms E explained Mrs B’s oncologist said with radiotherapy, her tumour would have shrunk and she would have lived longer.

7. Ms E would like financial compensation, an apology and service improvements.

Ms E’s complaint about the Practice

10. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Ms E to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look in to.

11. Ms E says the Practice’s actions to not do a follow up X-ray meant Mrs B’s cancer went undiagnosed for longer. Had the Practice correctly diagnosed and treated Mrs B, she says she would have been able to get treatment. Instead, Ms E says because Mrs B was so weak, she was put on palliative care. Ms E also says Mrs B experienced a lot of pain and an overdose because of the Practice’s failure to manage her pain medication properly.

12. Clinical negligence is where you have been injured because of medically negligent treatment. Failure to carry out appropriate treatment could also amount to negligence. As Ms E is claiming the Practice not treating and carrying out tests on Mrs B led to her not having the chance for a better outcome, this can be considered under a clinical negligence claim.

13. Ms E would like financial compensation, service improvements and an apology as outcomes to her complaint. As Ms E complains about the poor treatment and service Mrs B received from February 2022 to July 2022, she is still within the three-year statutory time limit to start a clinical negligence claim. We think Ms E has a legal route available to her in clinical negligence.

14. While service improvements and an apology are not direct outcomes achieved by the courts, Ms E may achieve these as a by-product of pursuing a clinical negligence claim. If Ms E does not, she can still bring this part of her complaint back to us. We ask Ms E to be mindful of our time limit which is 12 months from the date she became aware she had reason to complain. Given this was when Mrs B was diagnosed with cancer, Ms E has 12 months from then to return to us should she be unable to pursue a claim legally or she cannot achieve all of the outcomes she would like.

15. We discussed the possibility of pursuing legal action with Ms E to understand what her motivations were. Ms E explained that her main priority was compensation and she believed this would have been what Mrs B would have wanted too. We can achieve all three of Ms E’s outcomes. If Ms E pursued a clinical negligence claim, she can achieve compensation and she could achieve an apology and service improvements indirectly. Although service improvements are not directly imposed by a court, if a court finds negligence, the Practice will be expected to make changes to make sure the negligence does not happen again.

16. Ms E said she visited a solicitor before but did not pursue this as the solicitor said success would be unlikely. However, this was before Mrs B had died. We understand Ms E believed her complaint was at a minimum of level six on our severity of injustice scale. We explained to Ms E that we rarely award level six compensation and if we looked at her complaint, we could be stopping her from achieving more compensation by taking legal action. The courts can decide on the amount of compensation awarded in line with the Judicial College Guidelines. Therefore, they have the ability to award more than we can.

17. We wanted to know whether there were any barriers stopping Ms E from pursuing a clinical negligence claim. Ms E explained there was the issue of costs. We explained there are ‘no win no fee’ solicitors and conditional fee agreements which means you only pay when certain situations arise. We informed Ms E we would give her the details for Action Against Medical Accidents which is a charity that can help her in finding a local ‘no win no fee’ solicitor. We also told Ms E about the Citizens Advice Bureau. We have included these details in a separate letter sent to Ms E.

18. Given that Ms E was willing to pursue a clinical negligence claim and is aware that this may be the best avenue to achieve her outcomes, we believe it is reasonable for Ms E to pursue this. We have seen no reason why it would be unreasonable for Ms E to pursue this and we can see no barriers to her doing this. We have also considered the complexity of Ms E’s complaint and we do not consider it so complex that it would be difficult for her to make a claim. We have also considered whether the level of compensation would be unequal to the costs involved. As Ms E is seeking a minimum of £10,000 we do not think this would be the case. We remain of the opinion that this route is the best option for Ms E at this time.

19. We are very sorry to hear about the difficult time Ms E and Mrs B experienced and we are sorry to hear about Mrs B’s death. We do not want to underestimate how difficult this past year has been for Ms E and her family. We hope that by pursuing a claim, they can get some closure. Should Ms E be unable to make a claim in clinical negligence, she is able to bring her complaint back us.

1. We have carefully considered Ms E’s complaint about the care her mother, Mrs B, had from a medical practice in the Richmond area (the Practice). We consider Ms E could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.

2. We understand Ms E has experienced a very upsetting and difficult time following Mrs B’s death. We would like to offer our sincere condolences to Ms E and thank her for bringing the complaint to our attention.