Pausing the NHS complaints process
NHS England and NHS Improvement are supporting a pause in provider-level complaints
Due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic NHS England and NHS Improvement are supporting a system wide “pause” of the NHS complaints process so that all health care providers in all sectors can concentrate their efforts on the front-line duties and responsiveness to COVID19.
The initial “pause” period is recommended to be for three months with immediate effect. All health care providers can opt to operate as usual regarding the management of complaints if they wish to do so and this “pause” is not being enforced.
(Please note that of 26 March, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has stopped accepting new NHS complaints and has stopped work on open cases.)
What does this pause mean?
1. Patients and the Public can still raise concerns or make a complaint. All health care providers should ensure that patients and the public are still able to raise concerns or make a complaint, but that the expectation of an investigation and response in the near future is managed.
2. Complaints should continue to be acknowledged. All health care providers should continue to acknowledge complaints, log them on their respective systems, triage them for any immediate issues of patient safety, practitioner performance or safeguarding and take immediate action where necessary. All complaints should then remain open until further notice, unless an informal resolution can be achieved, or the complainant chooses to withdraw their complaint.
3. What about Secondary Care? In secondary care where Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) offices still operate, these offices could still provide support by email and telephone, something that should be encouraged so that patients and the public can engage with the organisation.
4. What about Clinical Commissioning Groups? CCGs should ensure that they continue to have open channels of communication with patients and the public.
5. How to handle existing complaints. The advice is that consideration should be given to complainants who, at the time of the “pause”, have already waited for an excessively long period of time – 6 months or more – to receive their response. It is recommended that this type of complaint should be reviewed to ascertain if and how they can be resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction.
How ECS Healthwatch is Adapting to Deliver its Services During the Coronavirus Pandemic
This pause is a good example of how health services are responding positively and adapting to the issues and problems caused by the outbreak of COVID19, and keeping things working as best they can.
We are no different here at Engaging Communities Solutions. Click here to see how we are adapting to deliver our services as best as we can during the pandemic.