Survey finds patients felt 'ignored' by local health service complaints process
Patients felt "ignored" by the NHS complaints process and found it "difficult" and "confusing", a survey has found.
Healthwatch Shropshire had asked the county's residents to come forward with their experiences of making formal complaints about the local NHS or social services.
A total of 78 people completed the Healthwatch survey, with the responses revealing a number of concerns.
Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer of Healthwatch Shropshire, urged the county's health and social care providers to look at the responses, and look at where improvements can be made.
Responding, Vanessa Whatley, Director of Quality and Nursing for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS), said they would be looking at the findings 'in depth', to improve the handling of complaints.
The survey recorded a number of concerns, including 17 respondents who said they had considered making a complaint but did not, due to feeling like it wouldn’t make a difference, or worrying it would affect their care and treatment.
The timeliness of responses was also listed as an issue with 12 people were not told when they would receive a response, and 15 people given a deadline which was then missed by the provider
There was also lengthy waits with ten people telling how they waited between seven months and a year for a response to their complaint.
The survey also found that 21 people were ‘not satisfied at all’ with the outcome of their complaint, and that 30 people were ‘not confident at all’ or ‘not very confident’ that measures had been put in place to prevent a repeat of what had happened to them.
Responding to the findings Ms Cawley said: “There is a real opportunity for the NHS and social care providers in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to work together to make the handling of complaints simpler for people, using the Complaint Standards from the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman as a guide.
"Complaints can offer providers valuable information into how their services are being experienced by the people who use them, and we would urge all providers to embrace the feedback they receive and learn from it making improvements that can be evidenced."
Ms Whatley said: "We are grateful to those patients and service users who took the time to share their experiences.
"We are sorry to hear that the experience of complaining is difficult for those who access our services, and who contributed to this report.
"We will be discussing these findings in depth with health and social care professionals across the system, and those that experience our care, so that we can work together to make the necessary improvements.”
