P-005742: Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Topics and themes

1 PHSO issue

PHSO issue classifications

Diagnosis

Outcome

AI summary

Complaint closed. The ombudsman decided not to investigate further as Miss Y is exploring legal action.

The complaint

2. Miss Y complains about the care and treatment the Trust provided to her partner, Mr D, in August 2024. Specifically, she complains the Trust caused a delay in Mr D’s cancer diagnosis and missed opportunities to provide timely care and treatment for this.

3. Miss Y says her partner’s death could have been avoided and this has caused significant distress and suffering.

4. Miss Y would like the Trust to acknowledge where it got things wrong, make service improvements and provide a financial remedy.

Findings

7. 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 Miss Y 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.

8. Miss Y has explained she would like to take legal action but thought she was meant to contact us in the first instance. As set out above, the law sets out a person should take legal action before coming to us. As Miss Y would like to take this option and has expressed no barriers in doing so, we think this is a reasonable option to explore.

9. We recognise Miss Y is seeking a mix of outcomes. As she is seeking a financial remedy we think legal action will be best placed for this. We hope this process is able to resolve her concerns for her and achieve the outcomes she is seeking. If her circumstances change, she may be able to return to us for our consideration.

10. We hope we have clearly explained the reasons for our decision not to proceed at this time. We thank Miss Y for taking the time to speak with us.

PHSO decision

1. We have carefully considered Miss Y’s complaint about the Trust. We were sorry to learn of the reasons for her complaint and would like to offer our condolences. After careful consideration, we have decided not to consider the complaint further at this time. This is because Miss Y is exploring legal action.