A practice in the Bradford area

3. Mrs K complains in February 2025, the Practice did not repeat her thyroid medication that she had been taking for many years.

4. She says as a result of being without the medication she fell severely ill in June 2025 and had to attend A&E for treatment multiple times. She says hospital doctors told her the lack of medication could have caused her death. She says it has negatively impacted her mental and physical health and she feels anxious as she depends on medication to manage daily life.

5. As a result of bringing this complaint to us, Mrs K is seeking an apology and level 5 financial remedy.

6. Mrs K has been taking Levothyroxine Sodium and Levothyroxine Sodium Thyroid medication for the last 8 – 10 years.

7. Mrs K says her medication was automatically repeated every month and the Pharmacy would deliver the medication to her home.

8. She says her medication ran out in February 2025 as the GP failed to repeat the prescription. She says she was not aware as her medication is prepared in a dosette box and delivered to her, until she became very unwell in June 2025.

9. Mrs K says she was left approximately 4-5 months without the medication and in June became very ill and went to the emergency department at hospital multiple times.

10. She says during this period she started feeling dizzy and sick. She had swelling on her tongue throat and face. She says she was unable to eat or drink and could not keep food down. She was dizzy on movement and felt severely weak and lethargic. She had no energy and became bed bound. Due to severe fatigue she became dependent on her sister.

11. When she started experiencing chest pains she went to A & E, where tests were carried out which showed her symptoms were due to her lack of thyroid medication.

12. Mrs K complained to the Practice on 6 October 2025. The Practice sent its final response on 9 October 2025. Mrs K brought her complaint to us on 31 October 2025.

14. 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. We have discussed this with Mrs K 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.

15. Mrs K says the Practice were negligent in her care and failed to provide the prescribed medication she needed. She says this caused her to become very unwell and put her life in danger. She was left without the medication for 4 months and had to attend A&E multiple times. She says doctors at the hospital told her the lack of medication could have caused her death and it impact her mental and physical health and she feels anxious as she depends on medication to manage daily life. This means Mrs K might be able to bring a claim of clinical negligence.

16. Mrs K is seeking an apology and financial remedy. The amount of financial remedy Mrs K seeks is at the higher end of our severity of injustice scale at level 5.

17. This scale allows us to ensure the recommendations we make are consistent and transparent for everyone who uses our service. The figures included in the scale represent the Ombudsman’s judgement about the sort of sums that are both appropriate and proportionate for us to recommend. The scale contains six different levels of injustice that a complaint could fall into, which increase in severity. Each level is then linked to a range of financial amounts we would usually recommend in those circumstances.

18. A court would be able to carefully consider and assess an appropriate amount of compensation for the impact Mrs K says this had on her. 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 her by ‘under settling’ the complaint or proceed with an investigation, as we are unlikely to be able to achieve the level of financial remedy she is looking for.

19. Mrs K is also seeking an apology. While legal action would focus on financial remedy, it may also include some other outcomes. Pursuing a clinical negligence claim could potentially achieve an apology too as a byproduct of a successful claim.

20.We asked Mrs K if she had any barriers to pursuing legal action and said has not provided us with any. Mrs K also told us she plans to go to a solicitor after speaking to us. Therefore, we do not consider she has any barriers to prevent her from pursuing a clinical negligence claim.

21. Taking all of this into account, we believe it is reasonable for Mrs K 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 financial compensation would be appropriate. We hope this information helps Mrs K progress her complaint and achieve all the outcomes she is seeking.

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

23. Complaints give us a valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, and we recognise this has been a distressing time for Mrs K. We would like to thank Mrs K for bringing her complaint to us.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs K’s complaint about the Practice. We were sorry to hear about the circumstances of Mrs K’s complaint and the impact she endured as a result of being left without her thyroid medication.

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