Blog
The NHS at 75: Time to prioritise patient safety
4 July 2023
An “insidious negative culture involving a tolerance of poor standards”. These are the words of Sir Robert Francis ten years ago as he described failings at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. His landmark inquiry revealed hundreds of patients at the...
Strengthening relationships with MPs at our drop-in event
9 May 2023
In April, we held a drop-in event at Portcullis House so MPs and their staff could meet with PHSO colleagues, learn more about our role and find out more about the complaints process. As the Ombudsman, we make final decisions...
NHS Complaint Standards: the value of good complaints handling
30 March 2023
The NHS Complaint Standards were launched in March 2021. Since then, 12 NHS organisations and 70 early adopters have helped us to rigorously test the Standards through our pilot scheme. In my earlier blog I explained why the pilot scheme...
‘An Ombudsman in peril’: Rob Behrens visits Ukraine
23 January 2023
On 6 December 2022, I travelled to Warsaw, Poland to meet Chris Field, World President of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) and Ombudsman of Western Australia, to prepare for our working visit to Ukraine from 7-12 December 2022. We had...
NHS Complaint Standards: Learning from organisations’ feedback
16 January 2023
Andrew Medlock, PHSO’s Assistant Director of Standards, Training and Partnerships, gives an update on our work to further develop the NHS Complaint Standards. We launched the first version of the NHS Complaint Standards in March 2021. Since then, we have...