Fewer than half of complaints to NHS receive an apology, watchdog finds

  • Health
An investigation by Healthwatch England has found that only 49% of patients who complain about NHS treatment receive an apology Credit: PA

Only 49% of NHS patients who complain about poor care receive an apology, according to an investigation by the official complaints watchdog.

Healthwatch England described the complaints system for NHS patients "utterly bewildering and often ineffective" as it called for a raft of changes to be made to the process.

The report, entitled Suffering in Silence, said that red tape within the NHS and local authorities is making it too difficult for people to complain and there is not enough independent advice to help unhappy patients.

Some patients described the complaints procedure as a "nightmare" and a "waste of time" while many felt their complaints were ignored or passed around the system, the watchdog found.

It found that overwhelming public opinion was that "hospitals, GPs and care homes are still failing to grasp fundamental principles about how to deal with those they have let down".

The watchdog estimates that at least 250,000 incidents of poor care went unreported last year, with almost two thirds of dissatisfied patients not making a complaint because it was either too confusing, they felt they wouldn't be taken seriously or didn't feel it would make any difference.

Key Recommendations:

  • Allow complaints to be made anonymously or by 'worried bystanders' who witness others suffering as a result of poor care

  • Introduce a 72-hour maximum response time for all complaints

  • Clearly display up-to-date information about where and how to complain in all appointment letters, on prescription notes, on waiting room walls etc.

  • All councils to be required to send details of complaints about social care services to the Health and Social Care Information Centre to provide the same national oversight as for complaints about the NHS

  • Prevent people being bounced around the complaints system by making health and social care staff responsible for ensuring complaints reach the right part of the system rather than leaving it to the patients

  • Introduce a named case handler for every complaint so people have a consistent point of contact

  • Replace fragmented complaints support services such as Patient Advice and Liaison Services and the Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service with one single offer of support open to all patients regardless of age, condition or service

  • Scrap the one-year rule and give patients and care users the power to control the pace of their complaint, including the ability to register their intent to complain and then 'stop the clock' until they are emotionally and physically able to pursue it

Anna Bradley, Chair of Healthwatch England, said: "There is already universal support for the need to improve complaints handling and the public has helped us highlight some quick wins for the system. But having examined the experiences of thousands of patients, it is clear that the problem goes much deeper than a bit of tinkering with what we already have.

"We are calling for legislative time to be dedicated to this issue as soon as possible following the election, with the aim of creating a new, streamlined and genuinely responsive system that will give people what they want and ultimately provide the system with the insight to learn from its mistakes."