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13 June 2008
Ann Abraham, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) today urges the NHS to improve the way it handles complaints.
In a new report - Remedy in the NHS - Ms Abraham summarises 12 NHS cases previously investigated by her Office, highlighting examples of both good and bad practice in dealing with complaints. She concludes that “the cases speak powerfully for themselves about the individual and public benefit of effectively resolved complaints.”
The cases, set out in the first of a series of reports aimed at giving complainants and the NHS a clear understanding of how the PHSO approaches complaints, touch on a wide range of issues. Some of them identify failings in the service provision - from poor record keeping and poor communication with patients, relatives and carers to more serious clinical failings and, in one case, an avoidable death. Others involve failings in complaint handling.
Read the press release
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The Ombudsman’s Office is working on a project to develop Principles of Good Complaint Handling and we would welcome your views on the draft Principles as part of a public consultation. Promoting good complaint handling by public bodies is a key part of our work and the Principles are based on the experiences of this Office in considering complaint handling for over forty years.
View the consultation document here
27 March 2008
The first joint report by the Local Government Ombudsman and the Health Service Ombudsman for England was published today. It is the first time the two Ombudsmen have collaborated on an investigation in this way, using new powers from the Regulatory Reform Order that allow collaboration between Ombudsmen.
Injustice in residential care: A joint report by the Local Government Ombudsman and the Health Service Ombudsman for England, reports on our investigations into complaints made by Mr and Mrs Taylor (not their real names) against Buckinghamshire County Council and Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust about the care received by their son Frank, a man with severe learning difficulties. We identify a number of significant failings both in the level of care Frank received and in the way in which Mr and Mrs Taylor’s complaints were handled. We concluded that there had been fault by both the Council and the Trust that caused adverse effects for Frank and his family, including acute anxiety and distress and some financial loss. The report details the remedy we have recommended to the Council and the Trust.
Read the full report here
Read the press release here
14 December 2007
The Ombudsman’s report, The introduction of the ban on swill feeding, published today, contains the results of my investigation into the complaint made by Associated Swill Users (ASU), on behalf of all their members, against the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in relation to the introduction of the ban on swill feeding, following the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001. Although the complaint is not upheld, it seemed that the level of interest in the subject matter, and in particular the link to the outbreak of FMD, meant that it was important that the report in its entirety should be put into the public domain.
Read the full report here
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