BackPatients and service users have described their expectations for good complaint handling across health and social care in new research published today by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman and Healthwatch England.
The report, 'My expectations for raising concerns and complaints', describes people's views of what good complaint handling should be like at each stage of the complaints journey. This includes, knowing they have a right to complain, where to complain, being kept informed and feeling their complaint made a difference so the same thing does not happen to anyone else and feeling confident to complain again.
For the first time health and social care providers, from GP surgeries to hospitals and home care services to residential care homes in England, will be able to use this work to measure people's experiences of complaints and help them improve.
The work comes one year after the Department of Health's 'Hard Truths' report following the failings at Mid Staffordshire Trust. This highlighted the need, across the NHS and social care organisations, to recognise the importance of people's complaints and to measure whether their actions were really making a difference to their experience of complaining.
The patient and service-led expectations were developed with more than 100 service users and tested with over 40 organisations. It shows people's complaints journey in the form of 'I statements' describing what people would say if their experience of making a complaint is a good one.
The expectations are consistent with the assessment framework used by the Care Quality Commission in its inspections of health and adult social care services in England.
For more information, please read the full Press Release.
Source: Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, UNITED KINGDOM
