BackFrom 2 April 2013, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman will be investigating more complaints and sharing more information with government organisations and the NHS, marking the first step in delivering plans to have more impact for more people.
Under the new plans, the starting point will be that once a complaint meets some basic tests, it will usually be investigated. This means the Ombudsman service will be investigating and sharing the learning from thousands more complaints each year. The changes will benefit individual complainants, public services and the wider public.
For complainants, an independent organisation will have looked at their complaint and made a formal ruling on it. For the NHS and other organisations complained about – such as HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, the Border Agency, the Planning Inspectorate, or any other government departments and public bodies – they will benefit from seeing, commenting on and learning from more of the cases the Ombudsman looks at. This will help them improve public services.
Julie Mellor, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said: “We’ve responded to feedback from public services, parliamentarians and our public research. That’s why we will begin investigating more complaints from the beginning of April."
The complete press release is available below.
SOURCE: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
