BackA report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman highlights the devastating impact of service failures and poor complaints handling across the public sector. It reveals that too many people who complain to the NHS are not getting the answers they deserve when things go wrong. This latest snapshot of investigations by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman shows the devastating consequences families suffer when complaints are not resolved locally.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigates approximately 4,000 complaints a year and upholds around 37%. When it upholds complaints it makes recommendations for the organisation to put things right if they have not done so already. Most of the summaries published are of complaints upheld or partly upheld.
The 133 cases in the report were investigated between July and September 2015 and include 93 complaints about the NHS. Incidents of avoidable death, delayed cancer diagnosis, mistreatment of patients with mental health problems and poor end of life care are among the upheld NHS complaints in the report. These are the cases which provide clear and valuable lessons for public services by showing what needs to change to help avoid the same mistake happening again.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Julie Mellor said: “The NHS provides excellent care for patients every day, which is why it is so important that when mistakes are made they are dealt with well. These cases bring home all the suffering patients and their families experience when things go wrong, particularly when complaints are not handled effectively at a local level. Families have been left without an explanation as to why their loved ones died, mistakes have not been admitted, which means that much needed service improvements are being delayed. We are sharing these cases to help the NHS and other public sector organisations recognise and value the importance of complaints in helping to improve services”
Visit the website of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to read the full press release including selected cases from the report.
Source: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, UK
