UK/SCOTLAND | Public Services Ombudsman publishes annual health complaints report

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, Jim Martin, published the institution's annual complaints report for 2013-14 about the NHS in Scotland.

According to the report, there was an increase of 11.5% in health complaints in comparison to last year. 55% of complaints were upheld. The report, furthermore, noted a continuing decrease in complaints coming to the institution too eary. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman made 684 recommendations for redress and improvement.

The report highlights the issues the public brings to the institution about their experiences of the NHS. It also draws attention to the work of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman in the coming year with NHS stakeholders to improve complaints handling in the sector. And the Ombudsman highlights some issues requiring movement in the coming year, in particular:

• The institution's continuing concern about the time it is taking for coherent complaints procedures to be put in place for services delivered under the integrated health and social care models, with conflicting statutory processes remaining in place for these services.

• The barriers that some prisoners are still facing in accessing the NHS complaints procedure.

Fore more information, please click HERE or read the full report.

Source: The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, UNITED KINGDOM