University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

3. Miss A is complaining about University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust). She is unhappy about the lack of urology treatment she has received since June 2020. Miss A complains:

• there has been a lack of progress and management in treating her urinary condition since 2020 • appointments are set years apart with little consistency as she is seen by a different doctor or nurse each time • it is extremely difficult to access help when she needs it • the Trust did not take her mental health concerns seriously in 2023 • communication from the Trust regarding her treatment plan is poor.

4. Miss A experiences frequent urinary infections due to her condition not being managed. As a result, she has relied on constant antibiotic use which have worsened her condition and caused stomach issues. Miss A also relies on the washroom meaning she feels unable to leave the house and to care for her family. The delays in appointments have also left her with ongoing pain and discomfort. Miss A explains the lack of staff consistency in her appointments means her treatment plan starts from the beginning when she is seen by a new doctor. It also means tests are repeated, further delaying progress. The poor communication and failure to take her mental health concerns seriously has caused Miss A to feel ignored and isolated. The difficulty to access help and support from the Trust has impacted her mental health and led to her experiencing suicidal thoughts.

5. As outcomes to the complaint, Miss A would like for the full impact of how her condition is affecting her to be understood. She is also seeking a financial remedy.

8. 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

9. Miss A is complaining about issues which span several years, which we will expand on in the reasons for our decision. Miss A complains about care she received from the Trust since 2020. Miss A brought her complaint to PHSO in July 2025.

10. The first time she complained to the Trust was in September 2022. We do not have access to this complaint as it is not present in the Trust complaint file, however this is evidenced within Miss A’s medical records. Miss A stated she put a lot of complaints into the Trust regarding needing more help and support. To fall within our one-year time limit to investigate, we would need to have received her complaint by September 2023. This aspect of her complaint is one year and ten months out of time.

11. Miss A’s medical records show she complained in November and December 2022 saying she has reached out many times and not received help. For us to consider this aspect of her complaint, we would need to have received her complaint by December 2023. This aspect of her complaint is one year and seven months out of time.

12. Miss A also complains the Trust did not take her mental health concerns seriously in April 2023. We do not have the complaint available to us, but we can see this was mentioned in her medical records. For us to consider this aspect of her complaint, we would expect to have received this complaint by April 2024. This aspect of her complaint is one year and three months out of time.

13. Miss A complained to the Trust in August 2023 stating she had year-long waits for appointments. To fall within the one-year time limit, we would need to have received his complaint by August 2024. This aspect of Miss A’s complaint is 11 months out of time.

14. Miss A also made a complaint to the Trust in January 2024 about having difficulty accessing support and help. Miss A asked for her appointment to be brought forward. The Trust respond to Miss A apologising it could not bring her appointment forward due to high patient volume.

15. We understand Miss A made multiple complaints to the Trust between 2022 and 2025. From the complaint file, Miss A makes her first formal complaint to the Trust on 21 May 2025. This complaint led to a more formal response from the Trust to address the issues Miss A complains about.

16. Miss A approached PHSO on 8 July 2025. Miss A had not filled out a complaint form and was communicating her issues over the phone. We declined to consider Miss A’s complaint in July 2025 as she had not yet received a complaint response from the Trust. This meant the complaint was not ready for us to consider. We can see she actively chased up a response from the Trust. She received a response from the Trust on 5 August 2025, and Miss A was unhappy with their response. She wrote back to the Trust on 7 August with further concerns. The Trust responded on 17 September 2025, and Miss A was still unhappy with their response. She responded to the Trust on 18 September, and the Trust advised they had nothing further to add on 9 October 2025.

17. Miss A returned to PHSO on 14 November 2025 after receiving a final response and we asked her to fill out a complaint form. We acknowledge Miss A waited three months for a final response from the Trust. We understand this wait contributed to Miss A’s delay. We also note that in July 2025, Miss A’s complaint was already out of time ranging from between one year and ten months to eleven months.

18. When speaking to Miss A to ask about her delay in bringing her complaint to us, she explained she was not aware of our organisation and was not getting responses from the Trust. Through requesting Miss A’s complaint file, we can see the Trust responded and apologised it could not bring Miss A’s appointments forward. Where Miss A complained about cancelled appointments, we can see the Trust scheduled her a new appointment. We recognise Miss A was unhappy with the action the Trust took to progress her treatment. We have not seen a significant delay at any point, in the Trust responding to Miss A.

19. In January 2023, the Trust explained her treatment plan over the phone with her. Miss A complained about not having a follow-up urology appointment scheduled. The Trust explained she must have a cystoscopy before knowing next steps regarding her next urology appointment and she was happy with this. We acknowledge there may have been delays in Miss A’s treatment and understand this caused further distress to her. We also understand the Trust explain delays were partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 BMA industrial action, however these delays do not lessen the impact Miss A has experienced.

20. We appreciate Miss A had multiple interactions with the Trust about her treatment plan during the period she was being treated. She raised concerns about her treatment plan from 2022, and these were dealt with by the relevant clinical department at the Trust. Miss A expressed she was happy to close the complaint in January 2023.

21. Miss A did not raise a formal complaint until May 2025. We consider she could have complained much sooner than she did and that would have prompted the complaint process to start much sooner. That would have meant she would likely have received details of how to complain to us much sooner.

22. Overall, we can see Miss A made several complaints to the Trust from 2022 and 2025 and can therefore see no reason for Miss A to delay bringing her complaint to PHSO. We have decided Miss A’s complaint falls outside of our time limit and have not identified any exceptional circumstances which would allow us to set the legal time limit aside. For this reason, we are unable to consider her complaint further. We understand this may be frustrating for Miss A and we are sorry we are unable to put our time limit to one side.

23. It is important we act within the law, and that we apply our current approach and process fairly and consistently. We understand how important the complaint is to Miss A and we are grateful to her for sharing her concerns.

24. We are sorry for any upset this decision may cause. We hope this statement clearly explains the reason why we will not be considering the complaint further.

1. We have carefully considered Miss A’s complaint about University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We have decided Miss A’s complaint falls outside of our time limit. We have considered her reasons for not bringing the complaint to us sooner. We do not think there is sufficient reason for us to put our time limit aside and so we are unable to consider the complaint further.

2. We would like to thank Miss A for taking the time to bring her complaint to PHSO and taking the time to tell us about her upsetting experience. We are sorry to hear about the ongoing impact of this on Miss A. We acknowledge Miss A might disagree with our decision and wish to make it clear that our decision does not detract from the impact her experience has had on her. We assure her, in reaching this decision, we have carefully considered the concerns she raised. We hope this statement explains the reasons for our decision.