Ombudsman welcomes commitment to local resolution
16 July 2009
Press release 09/06
16 July 2009
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, welcomes the greater commitment to improving complaint handling by government departments and the NHS, in her Annual Report 2008-09 Every Complaint Matters 
(6.4MB).
‘The reform of the health service complaints system saw my Office become the second and final stage of the system. As importantly there has been a clear commitment on the part of the NHS to local resolution, something complainants want and for which I have argued for many years,’ says Abraham.
‘There is still much to improve and too many complaints come to my Office when they could easily have been resolved by the public body in question, avoiding injustice and preventing what can be years of suffering for the individual concerned,’ concluded Abraham.
To meet the demands of the new health complaint system the Ombudsman made a major investment, opening a new office in Manchester and recruiting over 100 new staff. Effective transitional planning between the Ombudsman’s Office, the Department of Health and the now defunct Healthcare Commission ensured a smooth transition of cases when the new system was introduced on 1 April 2009.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman was contacted by over 16,000 people in 2008-09 and continued to have a high level of compliance with her recommendations, over 99 per cent.
Last year saw the publication of two high profile reports Equitable Life: a decade of regulatory failure, and Six lives: the provision of public services to people with learning disabilities. In addition the Office published case digests covering remedy for upheld complaints about the NHS and complaints about the Department for Work and Pensions.
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Note to editors:
For further information contact: Kath Butler on 0300 061 3924
Download: Annual Report 2008-09 Every Complaint Matters (6.4MB)
