Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

4. Mrs O complains about the care and treatment she received from the Trust on 25 April 2024 while in A&E. In particular, she complains that:

• the length of time she waited at A&E was unacceptable • she should not have been discharged from hospital the following day, considering her health circumstances on admission.

5. Mrs O says as a result of the Trust's actions she does not have confidence in the level of care she would receive if she required another hospital admission. She also says her health circumstances have worsened because of the care she received and this has affected the stability of her employment due to needing time off work

6. Mrs O is seeking service improvements and financial compensation.

7. Mrs O attended A&E on 25 April 2024 after her family thought she was displaying symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. She was discharged home on 26 April 2024.

8. On 18 June 2024 Mrs O submitted a formal complaint to the Trust. The Trust responded on 19 August 2024.

9. Mrs O complained further to the Trust on 17 September 2024 and the Trust responded on 14 November 2024.

10. On 12 June 2025 Mrs O submitted a further complaint. The Trust issued its final response on 28 August 2025.

11. Mrs O brought her complaint to us on 24 October 2025.

14. 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.

Dates of events and knowledge

15. Mrs O complained about the length of time she waited in A&E after she was admitted to hospital on 25 April 2024. She also complained that she should not have been discharged from hospital the day after she was admitted, considering her health circumstances.

16. Mrs O would have been aware she had reason to complain about her hospital admission and discharge at the point she was discharged from hospital on 26 April 2024. This means she should have complained to us about this issue by 26 April 2025. We received her complaint in October 2025. This means, Mrs O’s complaint is out of time by six months.

Consideration of reasons for delay

17. As set out above, Mrs O’s latest possible date of knowledge for her complaint about the circumstances of her admission and discharge from hospital was 26 April 2024.

18. We have considered Mrs O’s reasons for the delay in progressing her complaint with the Trust, and separately, her delay in complaining to us.

19. With regards to Mrs O’s complaint to the Trust, we can see that she submitted a formal complaint to the Trust soon after she was discharged and had obtained two complaint responses from the Trust by 14 November 2024. However, Mrs O submitted a further complaint almost seven months after the Trust’s response in November 2024.

20. We asked Mrs O to explain the reasons for the delay in progressing her complaint between November 2024 and June 2025. She said her health had worsened since her admission in April 2024 resulting in memory loss issues and declining mental health.

21. Mrs O said she had issues with the stability of her employment due to taking a lot of time off work for hospital appointments. Mrs O also said the Trust’s response in November did not state it was its final response, so she submitted a further complaint after a subsequent A&E admission, pertaining to wrongly prescribed medication, in April 2025.

22. Having considered all the evidence, we were not persuaded there is good reason to set aside our time limit. It is clear from Mrs O’s follow-up complaint in June 2025 that she was not satisfied with the Trust’s second response to her complaint and would have known this in November 2024.

23. We cannot see why Mrs O did not pursue her complaint earlier herself, or through an advocate. Mrs O waited until she had a further incident to complain about before following up with her complaint.

24. We note from Mrs O’s evidence that since her hospital admission in April 2024 she has had further hospital appointments to investigate the symptoms she experienced in April 2024. It is clear that Mrs O’s health circumstances have adversely impacted her mental health and employment, and we understand that the months following her admission in April 2024 were difficult for her and her family.

25. Whilst we appreciate that the problems that Mrs O faced after her admission in April 2024 may have meant that it might have made it more difficult to pursue her complaint, we do not think that this justifies a seven month delay, and we have not seen any evidence to suggest Mrs O could not have progressed her complaint about her admission and discharge earlier than June 2025. She was also able to respond to the initial complaint response within a month, and this was within the same time period.

26. Mrs O sought the advice of an advocate before bringing her complaint to us, as such Mrs O could have sought some assistance from an advocacy service after she had received the Trust’s response in November 2024.

27. We appreciate Mrs O’s comment that she was not signposted to our service in the Trust’s response letter dated 14 November 2024. While it would have been clearer for Mrs O if the Trust had outlined the next steps of her complaint, this is not a reason for us to set our time limit aside. If Mrs O was unclear about whether the Trust’s response in November was its final response, she could have contacted the Trust to seek clarification, especially as she was dissatisfied with its response.

28. By the time Mrs O followed up with her complaint in June 2025, she had already exceeded our 12-month time limit. While we appreciate Mrs O’s comment that she only became aware of our time limit via her advocacy service, our time limit is widely publicised on our website.

29. With regards to Mrs O’s delay in complaining to us, we expect complainants to complain to us as soon as possible after receiving a final response from the organisation. The Trust issued its final response on 28 August 2025, and Mrs O complained to us on 24 October 2025. We had asked Mrs O to explain the seven-week delay in complaining to our service.

30. Mrs O said she had sought some assistance from an advocacy service to no avail and had to submit her complaint to us herself. She explained that she also submitted a complaint to a third-party service associated with the Trust and was waiting for its response before complaining to us.

31. We can see that Mrs O contacted her advocacy service on 8 September 2025; this was soon after she had received the Trust’s final response. She also contacted us soon after she had experienced delays with the advocacy service. We acknowledge Mrs O submitted her complaint to us soon after receiving the Trust’s final response. However, as previously mentioned, Mrs O’s complaint was unfortunately already outside of our time limit at the point she came to us.

32. We have considered the time the Trust took to respond to Mrs O’s complaint. The Regulations say the organisation investigating a complaint should send the complaint response ‘within the relevant period’. It defined this as ‘the period of six months commencing on the day on which the complaint was received’.

33. We can see it took the Trust approximately two months to respond to each of Mrs O’s complaints; Mrs O sent three complaint letters. As such, we consider the Trust provided timely responses and this was not the reason for Mrs O’s complaint being out of time.

34. Having considered all of Mrs O’s reasons, we are not persuaded there is a good enough reason to set aside our time limit. The reasons she has provided do not justify the extent of the delay in the complaint reaching us.

Overall conclusions

35. Mrs O’s complaint was brought to us outside of our time limit. For the reasons set out above, we do not see sufficient reason to set our time limit to one side.

36. We recognise there were factors that might have made it more difficult for Mrs O to complain. We do not think these were significant enough to explain the long delay in following up with her complaint between November 2024 and June 2025.

37. We are very sorry to hear Mrs O is experiencing ongoing health difficulties and we understand how much this complaint means to her.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs O’s complaint about Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (the Trust). We have decided the complaint falls outside of our time limit. Therefore, we propose to take no further action. We acknowledge that this will be disappointing for Mrs O and would like to reassure her that our decision was reached with careful consideration of the evidence she provided.

2. We recognise Mrs O’s health issues are ongoing and that she has lost confidence in the Trust’s ability to provide care and treatment in the future.

3. We have taken Mrs O’s concerns seriously and carefully considered them. However, Mrs O’s complaint was brought to us outside of our time limit and we have not seen sufficient reasons to set our time limit to one side. We acknowledge our decision will be disappointing for Mrs O.