A practice in the Durham area

5. Mrs O complains about the Practice’s lack of medical treatment, lack of compassion and failure to recognise Mrs F was seriously ill in January and February 2022.

6. She complains:

• the Practice failed to diagnose heart failure when she reported symptoms including shortness of breath, difficulty walking and swollen legs. She feels the Practice should have sent her mother to hospital when she first reported the symptoms • the Practice did not prescribe any medication for Mrs F’s reported symptoms during the first consultations on 13 and 14 January • the communication and behaviour of the staff and some nurses was 'appalling'.

7. Mrs O says:

• her mother would not have died if the Practice had acted so heart failure could be diagnosed and medication prescribed • her mother and family were traumatised because of the suffering they witnessed • the family are very angry at the treatment and the lack of compassion. It has had a massive impact on them and has affected Mrs O’s brother’s mental health.

8. Mrs O would like:

• the Practice to make service improvements and tell her how it will make sure it learns and does not compromise the care of other patients • financial compensation.

affected by what happened and what amount we would be likely to recommend). After looking at this, she felt her complaint fell into level six on the scale and compensation of £10,000 or more would be right.

11. We have to look at whether Mrs O has a legal route available and if it would be reasonable for her to take it. Mrs O could pursue a clinical negligence claim against the Practice, because she is claiming Mrs F’s care and treatment fell below the expected standard. If successful, she could be awarded financial compensation.

12. Mrs O also wants the Practice to make service improvements. This is not something a court would order directly but it is a likely by-product of successful legal action, because the Trust would want to avoid similar claims in the future.

13. A complaint about staff communication would not be considered as part of a clinical negligence claim, but a legal route is available for most of Mrs O’s complaint.

14. A court will normally award a higher level of financial compensation than we can, and we want to make sure Mrs O has the opportunity to achieve the best possible outcome.

15. We asked Mrs O if she had asked a solicitor about Mrs F’s case or considered legal action. She said she spoke to one solicitor who said she should bring the complaint to us because the costs involved in taking legal action would possibly be more than the award itself and it could take up to five years to complete.

16. We understand Mrs O has concerns about how long legal action may take and was told to bring the complaint to us instead. Our process can also take time to complete.

25. We recognise a solicitor decided not to take the case but this does not mean other solicitors will do the same.

26. Mrs O said she has had difficulty finding a clinical negligence solicitor in her local area, and the solicitor she has already contacted is the only one she knows. We told Mrs O we would email her a list of useful organisations that could help her with legal support and find other solicitors.

27. As we can see no clear barriers to stop Mrs O taking legal action, we feel it is reasonable for her to explore this.

28. We cannot provide legal advice and cannot say whether her claim will be successful. It is important for Mrs O to be aware there is a three-year time limit for making a clinical negligence claims. She is still within this timeframe so we are not continuing further to allow her to take this route while it is still available.

29. If Mrs O has any outstanding issues that the court cannot achieve, or she has explored legal action and no solicitor will take her case, she can bring the complaint back to us. We will decide if we can consider her complaint further at that stage.

30. We ask that Mrs O takes considers our time limit, because the law says the complaint must be made to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We can put this limit to one side if we think there are strong reasons to. If Mrs O did return to us, we would consider the decision we are making to close the case now, but we would want to see that she had pursued the case as quickly as possible.

31. In summary, we have decided we will not take further action on Mrs O’s complaint. We hope we have explained the thorough consideration we have given to our decision and thank Mrs O for bringing her complaint to us.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about the care and treatment her late mother, Mrs F, received at a practice in the Durham area (the Practice). We are sorry to hear about Mrs F’s death and appreciate how greatly this affected Mrs O. We understand this must have been a very difficult and distressing time.

2. We are not taking any further action because Mrs O could take legal action to get the financial compensation she wants.

3. Mrs O would also like service improvements to make sure no one else experiences what Mrs F and her family did. This can be achieved as a by-product of successful legal action.

4. If legal action does not achieve all of Mrs O’s desired outcomes, she can return to us and we will decide whether we can consider her complaint further.