Furness General Hospital complaints are increasing, admits trust
Last updated at 16:33, Friday, 30 November 2012
MORE has to be done to address complaints from patients, hospital bosses have admitted.
The University of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust is running a complaints management improvement programme to reduce the amount of complaints at hospitals across the Bay, including Furness General.
Six hundred formal complaints were made to the trust last year, and this is expected to rise to around 720 for the financial year 2012/13.
Jackie Holt, director of nursing and midwifery, told a meeting of the trust’s board that the programme aimed not only to help reduce complaints but encourage staff to intervene early to deal with patients’ concerns.
She said: “I don’t think this is rocket science. This is about a fundamental mindshift and changing culture in the organisation.”
The programme aims to redesign the trust’s complaints process, with people who have registered their dissatisfaction in the past being invited to form part of a task group that will aim to make the process more efficient.
Departments against which the complaints have been made will be notified earlier of any issues raised and staff will receive training in dealing with complaints.
Specific areas where complaints are more prevalent, such as accident and emergency or the outpatients department, will be targeted, as will members of staff who work directly with the public.
Chairman of the trust Sir David Henshaw said action was needed to help address the complaints of patients, and he said the number of complaints received was manageable.
He said: “I think this programme is fantastic. The plan of training staff we have talked about, and I agree with that, but what I want to know is how quickly are complaints going to be dealt with to ensure they are dealt with quicker than now?”
The board agreed that a statement of how the trust plans to improve the complaints system will be presented at the next board meeting.
First published at 16:17, Friday, 30 November 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Instead of redesigning the complaints process, how about improving things so there are fewer complaints?
Most of the complaints will be about the follow-up appointments that didn't happen. A simple procedure that wasn't being followed. Follow-up's sitting unread and not being actioned. Only the NHS gets away with this sort of inefficiency and it's right that people complain. We as the public have a right to expect better, and the staff that work there shouldn't have to take the flack for it. Let the nurses get on with nursing and let the docs get on with treating. But the management should be managing the processes that keep the system working. And yes, I was one of the 600.
View all 5 comments on this article
Have your say
my partner got exactly as beggers belief stated when she complained 2 months waiting for acknoledgement,and a further 7 months for a repliy there apparent reason for the delay was the inability to get intouch with consultants that had treated her. they have left her diabled,because of lack of treatment/neglect. of course they denied everything.
Posted by col on 3 December 2012 at 10:14