NHS Complaints System is letting people down, our research warns
A national poll, commissioned by Healthwatch England and carried out by YouGov, found out that of 2,650 surveyed adults that had a poor experience with their NHS Healthcare, 56% took no action at all. Fewer than one in ten made a complaint following their poor experience.
Why didn’t people make a complaint?
Among those who did not make a formal complaint, there were several key barriers common between respondents:
- Just over a third, 34% of respondents, didn’t believe that the NHS would use their complaint to improve services
- A third, 33%, thought NHS organisations wouldn’t respond effectively to their complaint
- 3 out of 10 respondents didn’t believe that the NHS would think their complaint is serious enough
- One in five, 20%, were scared that complaining would affect their ongoing treatment
- Nineteen percent said they didn’t know who to contact to make a complaint
- Overall, over half of people who did make a complaint were dissatisfied with both the process of making a complaint and the outcome of their complaint, both at 56%.
What have you told us in Kent?
In the last 12 months at Healthwatch Kent, 76 of the people we spoke to about their healthcare mentioned the complaints procedure or that they were making a complaint. Of the 76 people, 89% gave negative feedback of their experience with making a complaint. 6 people had a mixed experience, and 2 had a positive experience.
Common themes from your feedback include individuals waiting longer than expected to hear about their complaint, such as one individual who told us:
“Nobody is getting back to me and it is months now. PALS phoned me and asked for emails of communication… But after two more emails I sent them asking for information on what is happening, and then that my complaint be escalated, I have had no response”
Other people told us how they were not satisfied with the result of their complaint:
“Following my complaint, it was my expectation that because I’d had an issue with my appointment that I would be given another appointment quite quickly, but this did not happen… I do not feel that I was listened to by the complaints team.”
Some individuals told us that they felt that they had been ignored after putting a complaint about their healthcare in:
“PALS just talk to the people involved and so it feels like a formal complaint that’s just shrugged off and forgotten about.”
Three Key Recommendations
Following the national poll which reflects what we are hearing from you in Kent, Healthwatch England have put together three key recommendations for action to improve the complaints process:
- Make the complaints process easier for patients and their families to navigate
- Monitor and improve the performance of organisations that handle complaints
- Develop a culture of listening to and learning from complaints
Click hear to read the Healthwatch England Report
If you would like to make a complaint about an NHS service in Kent but unsure about how or who to send the complaint to, please contact our information and signposting line at info@healthwatchkent.co.uk, call 0808 801 0102 or fill out our Have Your Say Form
