BackIn his Annual Report, laid before the National Assembly for Wales on 20 June 2012, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Peter Tyndall, reveals that once again there has been an increase in the volume of casework at his office. Enquiries rose by 66% compared to 2010/11. Complaints about public bodies were up by 13% overall with complaints about health bodies up 55% on the previous year.
Peter Tyndall said: “It is a matter of concern that complaints about health bodies are not only continuing to rise, but that they are rising at such a significant rate. From the time when the office was created in April 2006, complaints about health bodies have increased by 176%. Whilst this can be attributable in part to greater public awareness of my office and to the fact that people are now more prepared to complain than in the past, it clearly raises questions about failings in health care. 48% of the health complaints I received during the past year were about clinical health care in hospitals.
“However, on a positive note health bodies have been co-operative with my office and willing to learn when things have gone wrong to ensure that they do not happen again.”
The Ombudsman also has a role to consider complaints that members of local authorities have breached the code of conduct. It has been a matter of concern that such complaints rose by 49%. However, it did not go unnoticed by the Ombudsman that this increase occurred during an election year for local authorities.
The overall theme of this year’s report is ‘Improving Access: Delivering Improvement’. This recognises the work done to improve access to the complaints procedures of bodies within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, other public service providers, ombudsmen services and other complaint handling schemes. This includes the launch of the new Complaints Wales service, a web and phone signposting service aimed at helping people in Wales find their way to the right place to make their complaint, when they don’t know who to go to or indeed how to go about making their complaint.
Delivering improvement reflects the work done in helping to improve public service delivery in Wales, by ensuring that the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s reports are complied with and through working with regulators to ensure that the changes introduced are sustained and effective, and working to share the lessons from those investigations with other public service providers.
The full report is available on the Ombudsman’s website and on the IOI website.
Source: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
