'NHS Complaints: Who cares? Who can make it better?'
A survey of members and their experience of the NHS Complaints system
When you are ill, the last thing you want to have to do is make a complaint. What you want is safe, good care and to get back to normal as quickly as possible.
The latest PA survey reveals an NHS complaints system that is cumbersome, variable and takes too long.
The survey shows patients want genuine and positive recognition by staff that something has gone wrong, whether it is a simple apology or a formal hearing. The system itself seems unable to respond to individual patients needs.
Director of Communications Katherine Murphy said, ‘With the changes to the Complaints Systems coming in 2009, now is the ideal time to make sure that the system lives up to the rhetoric and puts patients at the centre of the service. This will mean each NHS staff member reacting constructively when something goes wrong. The entire complaints systems should be based on this central premise.’
The Patients Association’s Call to Action includes Trust board accountability for the standard of their complaints system, NHS management accountability to ensure all staff treats complaints seriously and positively, and a national audit of complaints to ensure consistency and best practice which will in turn reassure patients and be an educational tool for staff.
Katherine Murphy added, ‘Every complaint matters. Ignoring complaints results in wasted resources, frustrated patients and the spread of cynicism about the system and its staff.’
Research Methodology
Having sent out 1500 questionnaires to a wide and random selection of people from our database via post and email, we received just over 484 responses having opened the survey for two weeks in August. This report is based on the 484 responses.
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For more information, please contact Vanessa Bourne or Katherine Murphy on 020 8423 9111
