Last updated on August 29th, 2017 at 10:54 am
In order to show GPs how to manage complaints better and improve patient care the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has published a report.
Five areas for GP complaint handling improvement
Four organisations were involved in gathering the information, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), NHS England and Healthwatch England. They identified inconsistencies in complaint handling and suggested five areas where general practice can improve:
- Listening culture: ask for feedback
- Regulations: make sure practice staff understand what is expected of them and understand their statutory duties in order to comply with the DoH 2009 regulations
- Values: be professional
- Attitude: apologise where appropriate and be open and honest when things go wrong
- Learning: listen, respond and share
Solutions for improving GP complaint handling
- Education and training
- Sharing what has been learned
- Communication
The PHSO said:
“During our review, all four of our organisations have received feedback on our own complaint handling and what it is GPs and practice managers would welcome from us to support them to do this better.”
Therefore each organisation made its own commitment that can be found on the PHSO website.
In response, Peter Walsh, AvMA chief executive said:
“There should be openness and honesty whenever something goes wrong and this would negate the need for many complaints or legal claims. Although the duty of candour was brought in for GPs almost a year ago, there is a lack of awareness about it. There needs to be a programme of training and also a more rigorous approach by the regulator, the Care Quality Commission, when GP practices fail to comply with the duty of candour or the complaints regulations.”
How to complain if you are unhappy with your GP
You have the right to make a complaint about any aspect of NHS treatment you have received or been refused using the NHS complaints procedure, have your complaint investigated, and be given a full and prompt reply. In reality, however, this does not always happen, given that some practices are striking patients from their lists once they complain. As Jeremy Hunt once said, patients “have faced a closed and defensive culture when they’ve tried to find out the truth about things that go wrong”.
Ideally you should make your complaint within 1 year of the incident you want to complain about.
You can submit a complaint direct to your, or to the commissioner of the services instead if this would make you feel less uncomfortable.
When they begin to investigate your complaint, you may be required to attend a meeting. After the investigation is complete, you should get a written response to your complaint and what the investigation shows. If you’re unsatisfied with the response, you are able to make an appeal to the PHSO.
The PHSO does not work for the NHS or the government. It will review your initial complaint and the response to it to see whether your complaint was handled appropriately. The PHSO will decide whether it will support the decision, or state that it was the wrong decision, and what will be done next.
What will the PHSO do?
When you make your initial complaint, the possible solutions depend upon the seriousness of the complaint, and the effect it has had on you. The person handling the complaint will consider the following:
Step 1 – It will decide how serious the issue is. An issue about unsatisfactory service generally scores low on seriousness, while several similar issues may be of medium seriousness. Major issues on the quality of care, being denied your rights, or anything causing long-term damage will often score high on seriousness.
Step 2 – It must consider how likely the issue is to recur. It could be a one-off incident that isn’t really related to the NHS that is unlikely to happen again. However, it could be something that could happen again, or will happen several times a year or even more.
Step 3 – The seriousness of the incident, and the chance of it recurring will be put together to assess the risk to all patients. If it’s a simple, minor issue, such as minor harm, that’s unlikely to recur, it will be considered a low risk. If a major incident occurred, causing serious harm and it could easily happen again, it will be considered a high or extreme risk.
Graysons comments
When drafting your letter of complaint, Graysons recommends you should:
- Firstly, introduce yourself – name – date of birth – address – hospital/NHS number.
- Secondly, outline what happened as you understand it.
- Thirdly, outline your current situation/problems.
- Fourthly, list the questions you want answering – make your questions specific. You should ask questions even if you feel you already know the answer because the questions will help direct investigations towards important aspects.
- You can ask the GP to provide you with a copy of your records in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1990, and any investigation reports.
- Finally ask when you can expect to receive a response. However, you should be aware that there is no set timescale for getting a response from the NHS.
Need more help?
Our team consists of specialist medical negligence lawyers, some of whom have worked for the NHS, giving them an ideal understanding of the problems that you may encounter. If we think there’s a medical negligence claim, we can assist you with a complaint as part of the process. We also offer a free consultation to anyone considering making an NHS complaint or claim.
Read more about how to make a complaint on the NHS website.
You can find out more about who you can make a medical negligence claim against on our web pages.
