Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Mr F complains in September 2023 Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust delayed referring him to Bristol for an urgent heart operation after confirming on 13 September that he needed this operation and it would go ahead within 48 hours.

4. Mr F also complains in October 2023 after he had been transferred to the Bristol hospital on 11 October, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust further delayed the operation, meaning he had to wait over 6 weeks until it went ahead on 20 October 2023.

5. Mr F says the wait for the operation was extremely stressful and he kept getting his hopes up only to be given no news. Not only was he anxious about the operation, but the long delay affected his mental health as he now suffers from stress, anxiety and PTSD. He is the main carer for his wife and being away from her for so long was devastating and caused her condition to significantly deteriorate and she has not been the same since.

6. Mr F says he is not the same man he was before he went into hospital. He says having over 70 blood thinning injections over the six-week period waiting for his operation caused his blood to be difficult to control during the operation and caused a massive bleed after the operation. He says he does not feel better than he did before the operation and feels the delay could have also impacted his physical recovery.

7. As a result of bringing this complaint to us, Mr F is seeking financial remedy of £20,000.

8. Mr F had an appointment for an echocardiogram on 12 September 2023. Abnormalities were found on the scan that needed further investigation, so he was admitted to hospital immediately.

9. Hospital consultants had a meeting the following morning on 13 September 2023 and agreed Mr F needed an urgent heart operation which involved removing a mass, repairing an aortic valve and carrying out a bypass procedure.

10. Mr F waited 3 weeks to be transferred to Bristol hospital on 11 October 2023.

11. Mr F had his operation over 6 weeks later than he was first admitted, on 20 October 2023.

13. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint where the person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Mr F to understand his circumstances and the outcomes he wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed but whether it would be a reasonable option to look into.

14. Mr F says the Trusts were negligent in his care and failed to carry out appropriate care and treatment. He says the delay in carrying his urgent heart operation has had a significant and lasting impact on both his mental and physical health. Therefore, he could have a legal route available, namely a clinical negligence claim.

15. Mr F says since this happened, he has suffered with anxiety and PTSD. He says he is not the same man he was before and feels worse mentally and physically than before he had the operation.

16. The only outcome Mr F seeks is £20,0000 compensation which exceeds our severity of injustice scale (our scale). If we investigated this complaint, it is very unlikely we would be able to recommend financial remedy in that region.

17. A court would be able to carefully consider and assess an appropriate amount of compensation for the impact Mr F says this had on him. A successful clinical negligence claim can often attach a larger financial sum than we might recommend on our scale. We would not want to disadvantage Mr F by ‘under settling’ the complaint and proceed with an investigation if we are not able to achieve the level of financial remedy he is looking for.

18. We asked Mr F if he had any barriers to taking legal action. He says he does not and is happy to explore this route with the help of his daughter who his assisting with his complaint.

19. Taking all of this into account, we believe it is reasonable for Mr F to pursue legal action. We have decided not to consider the complaint further on these grounds. The courts can independently review the complaint and decide whether there has been a clinical negligence, and, if so, decide on what amount of compensation would be appropriate. We hope this information helps Mr F to progress his complaint and achieve the outcome he is seeking.

20. If Mr F finds he does not have a legal route for the complaint, he may come back to us and we could potentially consider his complaint. Complaints need to be brought to us within one year of a person becoming aware they have reason to complain. We can put our time limit to one side if we consider there is a good reason to do so. Mr F would need to come back to us promptly if he is unsuccessful with his attempts to pursue legal action.

21. Complaints give us a valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, and we recognise this has been a distressing time for Mr F. We would like Mr F for sharing his experience with us.

1. We have carefully considered Mr F’s complaint about the Trusts. We were sorry to hear about the impact he endured as a result of his delayed heart operation.

2. We have decided not to consider Mr F’s complaint further. This is because we have decided it is reasonable for him to pursue a legal remedy by way of a clinical negligence claim.