A medical practice in the Wakefield area

3. Mrs O complains about the care she received from the Practice in relation to pain she had in her neck from March 2020 to April 2021. She says:

• the Practice would not refer her for an X-ray when she requested one on several occasions • her GP asked her why she wanted to expose herself to radiation, to which Mrs O said her X-ray request was to investigate the cause of the pain she was in • during her appointment on 6 August 2020, the GP told her the Practice was not doing any X-rays, but her friend had had one there in July 2020.

4. Mrs O says her neck pain, and the Practice refusing to find out the cause of pain, has affected her quality of life and she felt very depressed about it.

5. Mrs O also says she has felt disregarded by the Practice’s GP who saw her.

6. Mrs O is seeking £1,500 in compensation.

7. On 9 January 2020, Mrs O attended the Practice with pain and grinding in her neck.

8. On 9 March 2020, Mrs O says she asked her GP to refer her for an X-ray.

9. On 9 June 2020, Mrs O attended an out-of-hours GP appointment and was referred for physiotherapy.

10. On 29 July 2020, physiotherapy noted Mrs O’s neurology was normal and recommended she continue with exercise and painkillers.

11. On 6 August 2020, Mrs O attended the Practice, reported neck pain and discussed other medication. She says the GP again refused an X-ray referral.

12. On 3 December 2020, Mrs O attended the Practice because her pain was worsening. The GP arranged an MRI scan (magnetic resonance imaging scan, which uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body). The MRI scan was carried out on 21 December 2020. It showed degenerative change, stenosis and no cord compression.

13. On 24 February 2021, Mrs O attended an appointment with a neurosurgeon, who recommended surgery, which Mrs O decided not to go through with.

14. In April 2021, Mrs O raised a complaint to the Practice, which provided its final response in July 2021. Mrs O was unhappy with the response and went back to the Practice in September 2021. The Practice sent a further response in February 2022. Mrs O complained to us on 13 March 2022.

17. 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.

18. We feel Mrs O could reasonably have known in March 2020 she was unhappy the Practice would not refer her for an X-ray to investigate the cause of her neck pain. Mrs O submitted the complaint to us on 13 March 2022. This means the complaint is a year outside of our time limit.

19. We asked Mrs O to explain the reasons for the delay in bringing the complaint to us. We also considered how long it took the Practice to investigate the complaint and provide its response.

20. Mrs O told us she did think about complaining sooner, but she was worried about doing so because she had been a patient at the Practice for a long time. She also said that her GP kept telling her to take painkillers and there was nothing wrong with her neck. She told us she felt like she could not do anything to prove there was something wrong. We are sorry Mrs O felt this way. We appreciate this feeling would have caused her distress.

21. Mrs O also says she asked for advice from us earlier, in 2021, and we told her to write a letter to her GP. She says it took the GP a long time to reply. She came to us again on 7 September 2021 and that we told her to write to her GP again, as she had not heard back from them after disputing their first final response letter.

22. We are very grateful to Mrs O for taking the time and effort to send us this information and for her time on the phone. We appreciate she has been through a difficult time.

23. There was a gap of one year and one month between Mrs O becoming aware of the problem and making a complaint to the Practice. We consider there was opportunity for Mrs O to have submitted a formal complaint to the Practice during that time.

24. In summary, we consider Mrs O’s complaint to fall outside the 12-month time limit. As outlined above, we have not seen a good reason to set aside our time limit, and we have decided not to consider this complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about a medical practice in the Wakefield area (the Practice). We are sorry to hear the Practice would not refer her for an X ray to investigate the cause of her neck pain when she requested one on several occasions. We are also sorry to hear this resulted in Mrs O experiencing an extended period of pain and distress, which led to anxiety and low mood. We appreciate this must have been an extremely difficult and stressful time for Mrs O.

2. This complaint falls outside the 12-month time limit. We have not seen a good reason to set aside our time limit, so we have decided not to consider the complaint further. In making this decision, we do not underestimate the distress Mrs O has felt because of her experience.