UK – Healthcare Commission

Citation

(2005), "UK – Healthcare Commission", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2005.06218cab.005

UK – Healthcare Commission

Requests for independent review of NHS complaints set to treble this year

Keywords: Complaints, Peformance management, Health services, National Health Service, United Kingdom

The Healthcare Commission has received an unprecedented number of requests from patients wanting their complaints independently reviewed. The number has increased in the last year from over 3,000 cases lodged in 2003 under the previous system to 4,500 in the six months since the Healthcare Commission took over the handling of the second stage complaints in August 2004 from the NHS. The Healthcare Commission is currently on track to receive 9,000 in the first year in its role of independently reviewing NHS complaints.

The Healthcare Commission is beginning to identify initial trends from the complaints it has been asked to review. These requests have come from across the range of NHS services, but three main areas have been identified. Early indications show that approximately 30 per cent of cases received were about hospital care, with 22 per cent about general practice or other primary care providers and 15 per cent involving primary care trusts.

Of those cases the Healthcare Commission has been asked to review, the five main issues complained about include:

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  clinical treatment;

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  safe practice;

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  poor communication with patients and their representatives;

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  the attitude of NHS staff; and

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  poor complaints handling.

The Healthcare Commission is investigating almost 250 cases at the present time and will be making further recommendations to service providers as a result. It will be following up these reviews through action plans to ensure improvements are made to local services. All complaints are acknowledged within two days of receipt and prioritised according to risk.

For the first time, information about the levels of complaints that have not been resolved locally will be fed into its ratings assessment of NHS organisations.

Around 23 per cent of the first wave of complaints have been sent back to the NHS trusts where they originate, requesting further action to resolve the complaint. Around 40 per cent have been outside the Healthcare Commission’s jurisdiction – either because they fall within the domain of another body such as the Health Service Ombudsman, or because they do not meet the criteria for independent review. Examples of cases that do not meet the criteria for independent review include those that have not gone through the first stage of the complaints process locally or which have already been independently reviewed.

Feedback suggests that belief by patients in the independence of the Healthcare Commission has led to a high number of requests being received. In addition, NHS trusts may also have been waiting for the Healthcare Commission to take over the role – which was subject to delays while the regulations were being finalised – before handing on their unresolved complaints. A number of long-standing complaints now appear to be moving through the system.

The Healthcare Commission is committed to the quality of its independent review work and to considering each case it is sent thoroughly and impartially. It is responding to the higher number of requests by increasing its capacity and by working with healthcare providers to identify learning from complaints to reduce the likelihood of similar events reoccurring.

Marcia Fry, Healthcare Commission Head of Operational Development, said: “It’s encouraging to see the high level of awareness of the service we provide. We are committed to robustly investigating the cases we are asked to consider. We have doubled staff numbers to handle the higher level of work and will continue to develop our service for our customers – patients, the public and NHS alike. We also want to work with the NHS and the public to raise understanding of the process, the lessons to be learned from complaints and to increase the number of complaints resolved locally”.

Marcia Fry continued: “While we understand that it’s important for organisations to encourage patients to complain, it’s also in their interest and the patient’s best interests to resolve complaints locally. We will be identifying trusts whose complaints handling is poor and using this information to feed into our annual performance assessment”.