London Ambulance Service NHS Trust

4. Mr X complains about London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (the Trust) on behalf of his brother, Mr Y. Mr X complains the ambulance arrived too late and by this time, Mr Y had sadly died. He says the Trust should have realised Mr Y needed help and sent an ambulance sooner.

5. Mr X would like the Trust to improve its service. He would like financial compensation.

6. At the beginning of September 2021, Mr Y’s friend called an ambulance because Mr Y was shaking and having a seizure. The ambulance arrived eight and a half hours later and Mr Y had died.

8. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint if there is a legal route available and it is reasonable to take. We think Mr X should take legal action to pursue his concerns. Because Mr X is complaining about a clinical failure that had a clinical impact, he could make a clinical negligence claim.

9. Mr X told us he had not explored taking legal action before bringing his complaint to us. We explained he could not use our service and take legal action at the same time. We also explained he should take legal action unless there is anything stopping him from doing this. Mr X did not tell us about any barriers to doing this and agreed to take legal action.

10. If Mr X seeks legal action and is unsuccessful, he can return to us and we will consider his complaint. But he should be mindful of our time limit and return to us as soon as he can. Our time limit is 12 months from the date of being aware of a problem.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has decided not to consider Mr X’s complaint further because it is best for him to take legal action to try to resolve it.

2. We are sorry to hear about the death of Mr X’s brother and understand this is very sad for him and his family.

3. We know this complaint is important to Mr X and we have explained our decision in more detail below. We hope this shows how carefully we have considered his complaint before reaching our decision.