Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

4. Mrs X complains about the care and treatment the Trust gave Mr X prior to his death in November 2024. In particular she complains the Trust failed to meet the relevant target dates for his cancer care.

5. Mrs X says the delays in her husband’s care meant his cancer developed and became incurable.

6. Mrs X is seeking an acknowledgement of failings, an apology and service improvements.

7. Mr X raised concerns with the Trust on 2 February 2024 regarding aspects of her husband’s cancer care.

8. The Trust provided its response on 24 May 2024.

9. Mrs X wrote to the Trust again on 10 June and the Trust responded the following day.

10. In November 2024, the Trust contacted Mrs X to advise it was reviewing some concerns raised a few months earlier in a clinic appointment. It provided its response on 29 November. In the meantime, Mr X had sadly passed away on 24 November.

11. There was a further correspondence between Mrs X and the Trust in March and April 2025 which did not progress matters. Mrs X brought her complaint to us in July 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.

15. Mrs X raised concerns about Mr X’s care and treatment on 2 February 2024. We are using this the date of knowledge although it could potentially have been sooner than this date. This means that when Mrs X contacted us in July 2025 her complaint was at least 5 months outside our time limit.

16. Mrs X received a response from the Trust in May 2024. This letter advised Mrs X that if she was unhappy with the response she could bring her complaint to us. The letter also advised Mrs X that she should not delay in contacting us due to our time limit.

17. Mrs X did not contact us but wrote to the Trust again on 10 June seeking further clarification.

18. The Trust responded on 11 June saying it had investigated the matter in detail and had taken learning from the complaint. The Trust again advised Mrs X that if she was unhappy she could contact us.

19. Mrs X took no further action at that stage. We have asked the reason for this and Mrs X indicated her concerns at the time she had raised her complaint had been about trying to get her husband timely treatment. However, she indicated devastating scan results in March 2025 showing the cancer had spread had affected this. Mrs X said she was looking to make the most of her time with her husband. We understand that this was a distressing time for Mrs X and her husband.

20. Mrs X was aware from May 2024 that she could bring her complaint to us and that there was a time limit in doing so. Whilst we recognise this was a distressing time for her we consider it would have been reasonable for Mrs X to have contacted us during the period May to October 2024.

21. On 5 November 2024, the Trust emailed Mrs X to advise that following questions she had raised during a clinic appointment several months earlier it was reviewing her complaint.

22. The Trust wrote to Mrs X on 29 November addressing the complaint and again advising her to contact us if she was unhappy.

23. Mrs X wrote to the Trust again on 10 March 2025 and we asked why there was a long period in contacting the Trust. Mrs X told us her husband had sadly died on 24 November and as she was overtaken with grief, she could not face any further arguments with the Trust at that time.

24. Mrs X also told us and she did not feel the Trust had addressed her questions properly and that is why she contacted the Trust again in March 2025. At that point Mrs X had already had three responses from the Trust advising her that she could bring her complaint to us. However, she chose not to. Furthermore, the Trust response In March again signposted Mrs X to us but she wrote to the Trust in April adding to the delay. We consider it was reasonable for Mrs X to have contacted us sooner.

25. In summary, Mrs X received responses from the Trust in May, June and November 2024 and in March 2025. Mrs X was aware from those responses that if she was unhappy she could bring her complaint to us and that there was a time limit to do so. However, it was July 2025 before Mrs X contacted us. Mrs X contributed to the delay in bringing the complaint to us and she could have prevented her complaint from going outside our time limit. In the circumstances, we have not seen enough evidence to justify a decision for us to set aside our time limit.

Conclusion 26. The complaint was brought to us outside of our time limit. For the reasons set out above, we do not see good reason to set our time limit to one side.

27. It is clear from our discussion with Mrs X and her complaint papers that it has been a very difficult time for her and we understand how much this complaint means to her. It is important we consider and act within the law and we regret any further upset this decision may cause. We hope that this statement clearly explains the reasons why we will not be considering the complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs X’s complaint about Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We were sorry to hear of her concerns about her husband’s care and treatment prior to his sad death in November 2024.

2. After considering the relevant information, we have seen that the complaint falls outside of our 12-month time limit. We consider the time taken by Mrs X to bring her complaint to us is the main reason the complaint is outside our time limit. For this reason, we will not consider the complaint further.

3. We appreciate the time Mrs X committed to making this complaint and recognise this decision will be disappointing. We explain in this statement the reasons for our decision. We were sorry to read how much the experience impacted on her.