Summary: We will not investigate Mrs J’s complaint about her mother’s admission to hospital in March 2020. This is because a significant amount of time has passed since the events complained about which impacts on our ability to consider them now.

The complaint

1. Mrs J complains about the decision to take her elderly mother, Mrs K, to hospital by ambulance in March 2020. Mrs J complains this was directly against her mother’s End of Life plan to remain in the care home where she was comfortable. Mrs J believes the care home failed to properly communicate Mrs K’s care plan to the paramedics.
2. Mrs J also complains about the way her mother was treated in hospital, the visiting restrictions and the refusal to discharge Mrs K back to the care home.
3. As a result, Mrs J says her mother died alone in hospital, in unfamiliar surroundings and separated from her family. She says the situation was also deeply distressing for the family. Mrs J is seeking service improvements and a financial remedy.

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The Ombudsmen’s role and powers

4. The Ombudsmen have the power to jointly consider complaints about health and social care. Since April 2015, these complaints have been considered by a single team acting on behalf of both Ombudsmen. (Local Government Act 1974, section 33ZA, and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 18ZA)
5. The Ombudsmen will not generally investigate a complaint unless they are satisfied the matter has been brought to the relevant organisation’s attention and that organisation has had a responsible opportunity to investigate and reply to the complaint. (Local Government Act 1974 section 26(5) and Health Service Commissioners Act 1993, section 9(5))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the information provided by Mrs J, the Care Home and the Council. I shared my draft decision with Mrs J. I did not receive any comments from her.

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What I found

What happened

7. Mrs K had dementia and lived in a residential care home (the Care Home) placement funded by West Sussex County Council (the Council).
8. On 20 March 2020, Mrs K’s health deteriorated and an End of Life plan was put in place. Following discussions with her family, it was agreed that Mrs K would remain in the Care Home where she was comfortable.
9. On 23 March 2020, Mrs K became unwell with breathing difficulties. The Care Home called an ambulance and Mrs K was taken to hospital.
10. Mrs K was considered too unwell to transfer back to the Care Home and remained in hospital, against her family’s wishes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, strict hospital visiting restrictions were in place. Around ten days later, Mrs K died in hospital.
11. In August 2020, Mrs J’s sister complained to the Care Home about the decision to take Mrs K to hospital.
12. On 14 September 2020, the Care Home replied that the paramedics chose to transfer Mrs K and the decision was out of their hands. The letter signposted Mrs J’s sister to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman).
13. Mrs J started to draft a complaint to the Ombudsman via its website, however did not complete and submit it. Therefore, we did not receive her complaint.
14. In March 2022, Mrs J submitted her complaint to us.

Analysis

15. The Ombudsmen usually will not investigate late complaints unless they decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to the Ombudsmen about something an organisation has done.
16. While Mrs K did not have the mental capacity at the time to raise concerns herself, Mrs J was aware of the matters complained about in March 2020. She was also signposted to the Ombudsman in September 2020.
17. Mrs J has not taken any substantive action on her complaint since September 2020, over eighteen months ago, aside from a draft complaint which was not submitted.
18. Mrs J has explained that personal circumstances in 2020 contributed to the delay in bringing her complaint to the Ombudsmen. While I acknowledge that events created some difficulty in Mrs J pursuing her complaint, I am not persuaded this adequately explains the whole delay through 2021 and into early 2022.
19. In 2020, Mrs J’s sister complained to the Care Home then Mrs J drafted a complaint to the Ombudsman. This demonstrates an ability to complain earlier. I am not persuaded that Mrs J and her sister, between them, were entirely unable to escalate their complaint to the Ombudsmen before now.
20. The Ombudsmen provide a free service but must use public money carefully. They may decide not to start an investigation if the prospect of conducting an effective investigation is reduced. In this case, it has been over two years since the matters complained about occurred. As I will explain below, the significant amount of time passed impacts on our ability to consider the complaint now.
21. Further, Mrs J has not raised her complaint with the relevant Ambulance Service or the Hospital Trust. We cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. It would also be difficult for us to properly consider the complaint without responses from the organisations.
22. The Ambulance Service’s complaint policy states that it will not usually consider matters occurring more than twelve months ago. The Hospital Trust’s complaint policy states that complaints should normally be raised with six months of the incident happening. Therefore, Mrs J’s complaints are late by a significant margin and the organisations are under no obligation to consider her concerns now.
23. When a lengthy period of time passed, it can directly affect any attempts to gather information at a much later stage. For example, people’s memories and recollections fade and it can be much harder to obtain accurate accounts of an incident which occurred years before. This could impact on both the organisations’ and the Ombudsmen’s ability to consider this complaint now.
24. In summary, over two years have now passed since the events that are the subject of Mrs J’s complaint occurred. In my view, it would have been reasonable to expect Mrs J or her sister to approach us sooner than they did. I can see no good reason to consider the complaint now. There would also likely be difficulties gathering information at this late stage would impact on our ability to conduct and effective investigation. Therefore, we will not investigate Mrs J’s complaint.

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Final Decision

25. We will not investigate Mrs J’s complaint due to the significant amount of time which has passed since the events complained about and the difficulties that would cause any attempt to consider matters now.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsmen

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman