By Mark Smulian | 18 October 2011
Minor disputes over health care have led to both a deluge of complaints to the health service ombudsman and patients being unjustifiably removed from doctors’ lists, it emerged today.
Ombudsman Ann Abraham said the NHS’s progress in handling complaints was ‘patchy and slow’ and that too many minor issues landed on her desk that should have been resolved at an earlier stage.
She secured almost £500,000 for patients in compensation for injustice caused by poor care or poor complaint handling.
In her report Listening and learning: the ombudsman's review of complainthandling by the NHS in England 2010/11, published today, Abraham said: ‘The NHS is still not dealing adequately with the most straightforward matters.’
The ombudsman received more than 15,000 complaints about the NHS in 2010/11. In many cases ‘relatively minor disputes about unanswered telephones or mix-ups over appointments ended up with the ombudsman because of knee-jerk responses by NHS staff, and poor complaint handling’, she said.
The report noted that some GPs, who are about to take greater responsibility for commissioning patient services, failed to handle even the most basic complaints appropriately.
Abraham voiced concern at the number of patients removed from GP practice lists following often trivial disputes.
Removals accounted for 21% of all complaints investigated and included a case where a terminally ill woman was removed from her GP’s list following a dispute between the practice and her daughter, and another that followed a ‘simple disagreement’ about unanswered telephone calls.
Hospital, specialist and teaching trusts generated 6,924 complaints, 46% of the total, with the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust the most complained-about body.
The most common causes of patient dissatisfaction were poor explanations from the NHS and no acknowledgement of its mistakes.
Abraham said: ‘There is a growing recognition that patient feedback is a valuable resource for the NHS at a time of uncertainty and change.
‘But when feedback is ignored and becomes a complaint, it risks changing from being an asset to a cost.’
