A practice in the Bromley area

4. Ms H complains the Practice failed to perform a valid TTG test in November 2019 as she was not given the correct advice before the test. She says she was made aware during an allergy appointment on 18 October 2022 that she had not been given the correct advice and preparation before the test, so it came back as negative.

5. Ms H says she has extreme symptoms which she believes are linked to her having coeliac disease including diarrhoea, migraines, muscle spasms and skin irritation. She says this has impacted the quality of her daily life and her general wellbeing. She wants an apology, service improvements and financial remedy.

6. Ms H attended the Practice for as TTG test on 11 November 2019. This test came back negative. During an allergy clinic appointment on 18 August 2022, she was told that she had not been given the correct advice and preparation before the test so it had come back negative.

8. 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.

9. Ms H told us she had reason to complain about the Practice’s actions when in August 2022, she had an allergy clinic consultation and was given information on the TTG test which raised concerns she had not received the correct advice and preparation before the test from the Practice.

10. For her complaint to be in time, Ms H needed to bring her complaint to us by August 2023. She did not bring her complaint to us until April 2024. Her complaint is therefore eight months outside of our 12-month time limit.

11. We have discussed this with Ms H to understand why she did not bring her complaint to us sooner. We have also considered the time the Practice took to respond to her complaint.

12. From when Ms H knew she had reason to complain in August 2022 when she raised a formal complaint to the Practice in November 2023 there is a one year and two-month gap. It is important to note that therefore Ms H’s complaint was already outside of our time limit when she formally complained to the Practice.

13. We can see the Practice responded to Ms H’s complaint within a month of her complaint which is in line with NHS guidance on complaint handling.

14. Ms H has explained the delay in making a complaint to our service was due to serious ill health and we were sorry to hear how challenging daily life has been for Ms H in the past few years.

15. Based on what Ms H has also told us, this was not a barrier for pursuing local resolution in relation to her concerns as she had been raising issues she has brought about her care with the Practice since 2021 which we consider are related to the complaint brought to us. She has also pursued a complaint with the General Medical Council.

16. We recognise the difficulties Ms H has experienced with ill health over several years and we are sorry for this. However, we consider it would have been reasonable for her to approach our service sooner and within our time limits.

17. We have carefully considered Ms H’s reasons for not approaching our office sooner. Although Ms H has explained the difficulties, she experienced in the past few years and we are sorry to hear how this impacted her both her physical and mental health, we cannot see a strong reason for us to put the time limit to one side.

18. Having taken all the circumstances into account, this complaint falls outside of the 12-month time limit, and we cannot put the time limit to one side for this complaint. It is important we consider and act within the law. We hope this statement clearly explains our decision not to consider the complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Ms H’s complaint about a practice in the Bromley area (the Practice). We were sorry to hear about her concerns that the Practice did not perform a valid TTG test (test for coeliac disease) in November 2019. We recognise she has experienced ill health for several years, and we were sorry to hear how this has impacted her both physically and mentally.

2. Based on the evidence we have seen; Mrs H’s complaint falls outside of our 12month time limit. We have considered the circumstances of her complaint and have decided there is not a strong enough reason to enable us to put our time limit aside to consider it further. We are sorry if our decision causes any further distress as this is not our intention.

3. We do not wish to underestimate Mr H’s experience, and we recognise that her complaint is very important to her. We would like to take this opportunity to thank her for bringing it to our attention. We hope our explanations below show how we have considered her complaint.