Patients complaints system is too confusing

25 Sep 08
Next April's merger of the healthcare and care quality commissions will make confusion about the National Health Service's complaints system worse, a patients' watchdog has warned.

26 September 2008

Next April's merger of the healthcare and care quality commissions will make confusion about the National Health Service's complaints system worse, a patients' watchdog has warned.

The Patients' Association said almost 70% of its members felt it pointless to complain, and that trust in clinicians had worsened over the past five years. There was also 'a widespread view that NHS staff protect each other against the individual patient', it noted.

The report NHS complaints, Who cares? Who can make it better? said that people who were ill might lack the energy to pursue complaints, or found NHS terminology confusing.

'The complaints system itself discourages patients from complaining,' it said. 'Staff should not take advantage of this state of affairs.'

Association president Claire Rayner said: 'When you are ill, the last thing you want to have to do is make a complaint. But there are times when patients are so distressed or, frankly, furious about what has gone on that making a complaint is the only option.'

The association said next year's merger of the two commissions was a 'further cause for concern [as] there is uncertainty about how patients will find their way through the complaints maze'.

The association's recommendations included a commitment in staff appraisals to treat complaints seriously, public accountability for trust boards' records on complaint handling, and a recognition that 'patients are the reason for the health service, not interruptions to it'.

A Department of Health spokesman admitted the present system could be confusing, and said: 'Following a wide consultation, we are introducing a new, streamlined approach which will remove the need to follow a rigid set of procedures and replace them with a more open, flexible and personal service.'

 

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