Number of NHS complaints increases 1

Matthew Sinclair Better Government

The Telegraph reports a big increase in the number of complaints about the NHS:

"The Healthcare Commission, the independent watchdog, investigated more than 10,000 cases last year. Complaints included cases of patients left in soiled bedding and allegations about rude nurses.

The commission upheld 20 per cent of complaints, more than twice as many as the previous year. Almost a third of complaints about hospitals involved lapses in basic nursing care.

Patients reported that they did not receive regular baths or showers and, in some cases, were left for hours in soiled bedding or clothes."

So long as we’re just complaining to an organisation which is, in the end, accountable to politicians we won’t get anywhere. Only if patients are given the power to take their business elsewhere when ill-treated by hospital staff will there be the right incentive for improvement.

Matthew Sinclair

Matthew is Director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, author of Let Them Eat Carbon and editor of How to Cut Public Spending (and still win an election)

Follow @mjhsinclair

Narinder Chahal

Following Ivan Lewis’s article in The Daily Telegraph on how the Labour Government want to listen to the public and be more responsive. I wrote to the Minister to advise how badly my mothers care was ‘managed’ by the Southampton PCT. Here is his response:
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 16 June 2008 17:16
To: Narinder Chahal
Subject: Response to your Query : – Ref:DE00000313946 – Re: New comment Your chance to Speak and Be Heard
Dear Ms Chahal,
Thank you for your recent email to Ivan Lewis about end of life care. As I am sure you will appreciate, Mr Lewis receives a high volume of correspondence and is not able to reply to all of it personally. Your email has been forwarded to me for reply.
Unfortunately, due to diary commitments, Mr Lewis is not able to accept every request for a meeting that he receives.
I was very sorry to read of the death of your mother and that you were unhappy with the NHS care that she received.
However, I am afraid that there is little I can add to previous replies on this subject. While I can understand that you feel strongly about the issues you raise, neither the Department of Health or Ministers are able to comment on individual cases.
The Department of Health is aware of the need to improve the provision of end of life care and people’s choices at the end of life. The Department is currently in the process of developing a comprehensive end of life care strategy. In addition, Health Minister Lord Darzi is taking forward the NHS Next Stage Review, which will develop a vision for a clinically-led, patient centred and locally accountable health service. Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review Interim Report was published on 4 October 2007 and announced that end of life care will be one of the eight pathways that Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) will examine as they produce the reports that will help shape the review. In view of this, the Department has decided to defer publication of the End of Life Care (EOLC) Strategy until later in the summer, so that it can take account of this work by SHAs.
I hope this reply is helpful.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Butler
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health