King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr M complains about the care and treatment the Trust gave to his wife, Mrs M, from June 2016 to her death in February 2019.

4. Mr M complains the Trust:

• took eight days to drain the fluid from Mrs M’s stomach • did not speak to him about Mrs M’s care • did not involve an oncology (cancer) consultant in Mrs M’s care.

5. Mr M says Mrs M experienced pain and distress at the end of her life.

6. Mr M wants the Trust to improve its service.

8. The law says a person must complain to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem. We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we have a good reason to.

9. Mr M complained to us in January 2023. We asked Mr M why he did not complain sooner. We also looked at the time the Trust took to respond to Mr M’s complaint.

10. Mr M complained to the Trust in January 2020, one year after he had a reason to complain. Mr M said he was waiting for replies and responses from other organisations, which caused the delay.

11. We asked Mr M why he did not complain to the Trust sooner and he did not say why. Mr M could have made his complaint sooner.

12. Mr M got a response from the Trust in May 2022. This was a long delay and outside of Mr M’s control.

13. The Trust advised Mr M to contact us. Mr M did not make his complaint to us as soon as he could have done and he continued to contact the Trust.

14. The Trust sent Mr M another response in November 2022. Mr M could have complained to us then but continued to contact the Trust.

15. Mr M made his complaint to us in January 2023, a long time after he first became aware of having a reason to complain. We understand it was a very difficult time for him and we are very sorry for his loss. Some of the delay was not Mr M’s fault, but he could have made his complaint to us sooner. For this reason, we are not taking further action on his complaint.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Mr M’s complaint about King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). We will not take any further action on Mr M’s complaint because it was received outside of our 12-month time limit.

2. We are sorry to hear about Mr M’s experience and explain the reason for our decision below.