Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Miss R complains about the service she had while trying to attend an outpatient appointment at the Trust.

4. Miss R complains:

• a nurse misgendered her (referred to her using the wrong gender) and subjected her to aggressive and confrontational behaviour • the nurse removed her ear defenders without permission, despite knowing she is autistic and that these are helpful for blocking out any sensory overload.

5. Miss R says explains how this affected her:

• a loss of independence, autonomy and her right to privacy because she feels she can no longer attend her appointments alone due to the effect the experience had on her mental health • she felt she was unable to ‘get out of the department’ due to the nurses behaviour • she felt the nurses behaviour ‘disabled’ her • increased anxiety and fear • she has lost out on earnings due to having to take time away from work because of her increased anxiety and fear.

6. Miss R would like a financial payment.

8. The Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (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.

9. We have discussed this with Miss R 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.

10. Miss R explained she wants the Trust to make a payment for how she has been affected. This includes loss of earnings because she says the failings affected her ability to work.

11. We sent Miss R a copy of our severity of injustice scale and she felt a payment at a level four or five fitted her circumstances. This would mean a payment of between £1,000 and £9,950.

12. We explained to Miss R that although we can achieve different levels of payment, because what she had experienced was a one-off incident, we would likely place her lower down on the scale.

13. Miss R explained she felt this was ‘insulting’ and did not cover the financial losses she experienced because of what happened. We explained her complaint is better suited to a legal route because it would be more likely to achieve the level of payment she wants.

14. Miss R explained she is happy to explore a legal route and there is nothing stopping her from doing this.

15. If her case does not progress through a legal route, or if she feels there are issues that a court did not look at, she can return to us so we can decide whether we can look at her case.

16. We appreciate that Miss R’s experience has caused much distress and pain and we hope she has success with her legal claim.

1. We have carefully considered Miss R’s complaint about Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust).

2. We think Miss R could take legal action on the matter that she has brought to us.