Barts Health NHS Trust

3. Miss D complains about the care and treatment the Trust gave her mother, Mrs D, in January and February 2022. She said as a result of what happened her mother sadly died.

4. The outcomes she is seeking are an apology and recognition of failings.

5. Mrs D was taken into hospital in January 2022 with abdominal pain and reduced mobility. The Trust carried out investigations and admitted her to hospital, and then transferred her to another hospital run by the Trust at the beginning of February.

6. Mrs D’s health sadly deteriorated and the Trust placed her on a compassionate care pathway. This is a pathway to ensure people who are dying receive comfort, dignity, and personalised support. Mrs D sadly died a few days later.

7. Miss D originally made a complaint to the Trust about aspects of her mother’s care and treatment on 19 July 2023. This was almost one and a half years after the issues complained about.

8. The Trust provided a written response in December 2023. Miss D returned to the Trust in June 2024 raising ongoing concerns and the Trust replied to this in August 2024.

9. Miss D brought her complaint to this office in February 2025.

12. The law says a person needs to make their complaint to us within a year of becoming aware of the problem (we call this the date of knowledge). We cannot investigate complaints brought to us after one year, unless we consider there is a good reason to do so.

13. When Miss D made her complaint to the Trust in July 2023 it was already five months outside our time limit and 17 months after the date of knowledge.

14. Miss D was aware that she had cause to complain about care and treatment at the time Mrs D was an inpatient. We know this was the case because we she told us she had taken notes. The complaint she made in July 2023 clearly referred to how unhappy she had been with the care and treatment at the time it was happening.

15. We asked Miss D the reasons why she had not brought the complaint to the Trust sooner.

16. Miss D told us that she had shut down when her mother died and did not feel able to deal with making a complaint at that time. We were sorry to hear about the impact the experience had on her. She explained that when she had eventually felt ready to make the complaint it had taken her three weeks to do this and she still felt greatly affected.

17. We understand the impact of grief, which is experienced differently by everyone, and we are sorry to read about how difficult Miss D found it to make the complaint.

18. We think it would have been reasonable for Miss D to have taken some action to prevent the complaint from falling so far outside the time limit. We can see that at the time of Mrs D’s death the Trust sent a leaflet outlining sources of support. There are also advocacy organisations to help in such circumstances. We think it would have been reasonable for Miss D to have sought such support to help her make the complaint at this emotional time.

19. We also considered the time the Trust took to make its response. The regulations say the organisation investigating a complaint should send the complaint response within ‘the period of six months commencing on the day on which the complaint was received’.

20. We can see this happened as the Trust replied just over five months after receiving the complaint. For this reason we have not seen any indications of delays on the part of the Trust.

21. The Trust response said that if Miss D had any further questions she could return. It also explained the right to bring the complaint to the Ombudsman.

22. Miss D did not return to the Trust to raise her ongoing concerns until five months later, in June 2024. We asked her to explain the time taken. She told us she felt knocked back and didn’t feel able to send a further complaint to the Trust. She said determination then kicked in, and she decided to raise her ongoing concerns.

23. We know how difficult it can be to continue a complaint. As outlined in paragraph 19, advocacy organisations can help in these circumstances, and the Trust had provided details of an independent advocacy organisation in its reply of December 2023.

24. We think it would have been reasonable for Miss D to have used such support to return to the Trust in a more timely way. This was especially relevant as she had made the original complaint so long after the events complained about.

25. The Trust made its final response in August 2024, signposting Miss D to this office if was unhappy following the responses. Miss D made her complaint to this office in February 2025, which was over five months later, and now three years after the events and two years outside our time limit.

26. We asked Miss D about this final period, the gap between her getting the final Trust response and approaching the Ombudsman. Miss D told us there was no specific reason why she did not take action sooner. She said she had put the issue in a box and put it to one side.

27. We understand how difficult it can be to take the next step, and this is why we think it was helpful for the Trust to share details of advocacy support. This would have avoided the complaint falling even further outside our time limit

28. We have not seen anything in the explanations Miss D gave to make us think there are compelling reasons for us to set aside the time limit. We think that having already completed the complaints process, it would have been reasonable for her to bring her complaint to us without further delay.

29. We were very sorry to learn about what happened, and the impact this had on Miss D. We understand how important the complaint is to her, and we are grateful to Miss D for sharing her concerns.

30. It is important we act within the law, and that we apply our current approach and process fairly and consistently. We hope this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering the complaint further.

1. Miss D’s complaint falls outside our time limit. We carefully considered her reasons for not bringing the complaint to us sooner. We did not think these were sufficient to set aside our time limit and so we will take no further action.

2. We thank Miss D for taking the time to tell us about what happened. We were sorry to read about her mother’s experience and the ongoing impact this continues to have on her. We hope this statement explains the reasons for our decision.