North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust

3. Ms W complains about the care and treatment her dad, Mr U received at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) between 7 and 14 December 2024. Specifically, she complains the Trust:

• stopped his postural drop medication twice, on or around 10 December and on 14 December • provided insufficient food throughout his stay and did not provide supplement food until 13 December.

4. As a result, Ms W says Mr U fell twice after each time the postural drop medication was stopped. He became weaker due to lack of nutrition. She feels the poor care accelerated his deterioration and led to his premature death and his family have not been able to grieve properly because of this.

5. Ms W is seeking an apology, service improvements and financial remedy.

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 Ms W to understand his 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 into.

8. In a call on 27 May 2026, we spoke to Ms W and her sister about the complaint. They told us they were not sure about what outcomes they were looking for and had not given this much consideration. We explained it would be difficult to proceed with an investigation without knowing what outcomes they want and we gave them some time to consider this.

9. In a call with Ms W and her sister on 10 July, they told us they wanted an apology, service improvements and financial remedy. They said they felt the poor care and severe impact (i.e. the acceleration of his deterioration leading to his premature death) fell into level 6 on our severity of injustice scale and they are therefore seeking £12,500 or more. They said they had not explored legal action but were interested in speaking to AvMa, the charity, in order to determine whether or not they wish to pursue legal action. We agreed that they would contact AvMa and provide us with an update within a couple of weeks.

10. We contacted Ms W on 29 July to request an update as we had not heard anything since our conversation on 10 July. On 30 July, Ms W’s sister told us she had only managed to get in contact with AvMA that day due to how busy the service had been and AvMa were sending suggested solicitors for them to contact and have initial discussions with in relation to whether they could pursue a case. She said she was hoping to have these discussions with the solicitors this week depending on their diaries and would then have a better understanding on what to do next. She asked us to keep the case open for another two weeks if this was possible.

11. When we discussed the outcomes Ms W and her sister are looking for we recognised the outstanding outcome is financial remedy. This is because the Trust has already apologised, provided explanations and made service improvements for some of the issues raised.

12. We consider that they may have a claim for clinical negligence and legal action would be an appropriate route to explore at this stage. This is because the Trust has admitted that some things did go wrong, the high level of financial remedy they are seeking and they have already sought some advice from AvMa and are planning to speak to solicitors as the next step. They are therefore already looking into the legal route. We do not believe there are any barriers to them pursuing legal action. We are not able to provide legal advice, so it is important they explore this option fully with the solicitors that they are planning to speak to.

13. If they are able to pursue legal action and they are successful their claim, they might also receive a further apology and further service improvements, so it could achieve all of their outcomes.

14. If they have any outcomes which have not been achieved through legal action, they can return to us with their complaint. If they want to do this, we would urge them to do so as soon as possible, as we usually only consider complaints made to us within a year of an individual becoming aware they have a reason to complain. Taking legal action will not act as a negative factor in respect of timing, so long as they return to us promptly after it. If they do take legal action, we would need to wait for this to conclude before we consider if any issues are outstanding.

15. We consider that legal action is appropriate for the entirety of their complaint and that it may address all the outcomes they are seeking, therefore we have decided not to consider the complaint further.

16. We appreciate how distressing the events have been and continue to be for Ms W and her sister and we are grateful to them for bringing this complaint to our attention.

1. We have carefully considered Ms W’s complaint about North West Anglia NHS Foundation. We consider legal action is the most appropriate way forwards at this stage based on the impact claimed and outcomes sought.

2. We are very sorry to hear that Ms W feels the poor care accelerated her dad’s deterioration and led to his premature death. We recognise the ongoing distress Ms W experiences and that her family has been unable to grieve properly due to the events that occurred.