NHS Dumfries & Galloway admits complaints are not being dealt with in time due to pandemic pressures

NHS Dumfries and Galloway have admitted that complaints to the service are not being dealt with in time because of the pandemic.

Pressures on staffing levels have meant that they are struggling to meet their targets to deal with members of the public who contact them with issues.

Patient feedback in the recent months show that while complaints remain below pre-pandemic levels, they have increased over the last three months – but this has not resulted in patient dissatisfaction with care.

The report said: "This is in part due to staffing and pandemic pressures. The response times have also been influenced by responses being issued to a number of long-standing complex complaints.

"Overall, when compared to pre-pandemic levels there does not appear to be an increase in dissatisfaction with our care and in reference to the number of contacts within the system does not appear to indicate that we have a cause for concern at this point."

It adds the staff response times to complaints are above the agreed timescales, with stage two direct complaints sitting "significantly above" the standard response rate.

Stage one complaints should be closed within five days, while stage two matters should be dealt with within 20 days -  and where a complaint cannot be closed within the period, an extension should be in place.

Alice Wilson, Nurse Director for NHS Dumfries and Galloway, said: "After an exploration of that with the patient experience team, that has been more about people not updating the system rather than not having a conversation with the complainant."

During last week’s Health Board meeting, Dr Lesley Douglas asked: "How likely is it staff would be able to access training on this, given the demands on them in the challenging circumstances they're in?"

Alice Wilson responded: "It's just prioritising. Patient care will always come before the majority of training.

"But it's absolutely a focus for the team to get as many people through training. Where we have training online, it makes it easier because people can access it at a time that suits them."