Page last updated: 30-SEP-2008

Complaints

ONS kitemarkStatistical Publication Notice

30 September 2008

NHS Complaints

INTRODUCTION

"An organisation that truly welcomes, values and uses complaints to inspire and
guide improvement will be more successful than one who does not"
                               Professor Alice Brown, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
The NHS Complaints system can be a powerful force for making things better, both for individual complainants and for the wider NHS, thus creating a culture of learning from mistakes and putting things right - a key objective for the NHS in Scotland.
Complaints about the NHS are a valuable way of identifying issues in the service where change is needed.  Acknowledging these issues and taking steps to rectify any problems is vital to create an open and honest NHS.  Complaints should be welcomed with a positive attitude and valued as feedback on service performance, driven by the search for improvement in the organisation and not the appointment of blame.
 
The complaints system requires for the whole organisation to value and take ownership of complaints received.  Front-line staff, managers and executive officers all need to have defined responsibilities in welcoming and learning from complaints, in order to make a complaints management process truly effective.  It is crucial that complaints intelligence feeds directly back into service improvements.
 
Patients or perhaps a relative on behalf of a patient can make a complaint if they feel dissatisfied with any aspect of their episode of care or other factors such as facilities or the place they are seen in.  There is an incredibly wide variation in the type of contacts that patients have with the NHS - such as treatment as an Inpatient, Outpatient, A&E attendance, donation of blood or transportation by ambulance, to name but a few.  Each year, for example there are approximately 4.5m outpatient attendances and over 2m ambulance transportations in NHS Scotland.
 
Complaints received by the NHS are a relatively rare occurrence. In 2007/08, there were 7,294 complaints received about Hospital & Community Services.  For Family Health Services, there were 3,073 complaints received in 2007/08. It should be noted that the Family Health Services information for 2007/08 is incomplete since data was not returned from 3 practices in Dumfries and Galloway.
 
The NHS complaints procedure was revised with effect from 1 April 2005.  The most noticeable change is the removal of the Independent Review stage.  This was removed to enable a faster process and to allow the introduction of independent scrutiny at an earlier point.  This is provided by the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman.  The new system also makes provision for those wishing to complain about their GP without initially having to contact their GP.  In these circumstances, they may contact their Health Board complaints officer.  These changes are in line with the recommendations made in the research carried out in 1999 by System 3 Research and York Health Economics Consortium

KEY POINTS

  • The number of complaints for Hospital and Community Services has continued to fall in recent years, with 7,294 complaints received in 2007/08.
  • 67.2% of complaints were dealt within the national target of 20 working days in 2007/08. 
  • In 2007/08, around 37% of all issues raised related to staffing issues, and 29% related to treatment.  Around 13% of issues raised related to environment and domestic issues.  The percentage of issues relating to waiting times was 9%.
  • The number of complaints for Family Health Services was 3,073 in 2007/08. This is a slight increase in the number of complaints when compared to 2006/07 (2,984 complaints received). However, this is still a decrease when compared to 2003/04 when there were 3,301 complaints.

INTERPRETATION

Trend data for the Scottish Health Council, the Special Boards and National and Support organisations which are listed below, are only available from 2006/07. 
  • The National Waiting Times Centre (previously known as the Golden Jubilee National Hospital);
  • NHS Education for Scotland (NES);
  • NHS Health Scotland;
  • NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS);
  • NHS National Services Scotland (NSS);
Interpreting the complaint numbers for Highland and Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Boards must be treated with caution when looking at data previous to 2005/06.   These Boards absorbed the complaints for Argyll and Clyde NHS Board, which was dissolved on the 1st April 2006.    
The revision to the complaints process in 2005 has removed some of the barriers which may have stopped some people complaining about the NHS in previous years.  For instance, if a complaint is being made regarding a General Practictioner (GP), then the complainant can now contact the NHS Board Compliants Officer, or go to Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) instead of initially contacting their GP.   This new process could be contributing to the increase in complaints in Family Health Services.  

DETAILED FINDINGS

  • After a gradual rise in the number of complaints received about Hospital and Community Services from 1999/00, this number has continued to fall in recent years (7,977 in 2005/06; 7,387 in 2006/07 and 7,294 in 2007/08).
  • The percentage of complaints acknowledged within the national target timescale of 3 working days from receipt has remained at 93% when compared to 2006/07.
  • The speed of dealing with these complaints within the national target of 20 working days has increased to 67.2%, when compared with 2006/07 (58.4%).   This is the higest completion time for nine years (74.6% in 1998/99). Public holidays have been taken into account when response times have been calculated.
  • The median time taken to deal with complaints was 18 working days in 2007/08.  This has reduced slightly from 19 working days in 2006/07. 
  • Around a third of all issues raised were staffing issues (37%), a quarter related to treatment (29%) and 9% related to waiting times.
  • Within the broad category of ‘staff’ issues, the attitude/behaviour of staff (15% of all issues raised) and aspects of written and oral communication (17%) were the most common issues raised. 
  • There was little change in the proportions of complaints being upheld, partly upheld and not upheld.  In 2007/08, 24% of complaints were fully upheld, 35.7% were partially upheld and 38.9% were not upheld. 
  • The number of complaints for Family Health Services in 2007/08 is 3,073.   This is a 3% increase since 2006/07 (2,984 complaints).
  • There was an increase in the number of Family Health Services complaints made to the NHS Highland in 2007/08 (205 complaints) compared to 2006/07 (133 complaints) and 2005/06 (43 complaints).   Between 2006 and 2008, NHS Highland has incrementally introduced a new local reporting system, which has enabled them to capture a more accurate figure for Family Health Services complaints compared to previous years.  Also, NHS Highland has absorbed some of the complaints from the dissolved NHS Argyll and Clyde.  
  • The number of complaints received from blood donors to the Scottish National Blood Tranfusion Service was 197 in 2007/08.  This is an increase of 26% from 156 in 2006/07. The main reasons for this increase in complaints are changes in and tightening of guidelines in donor selection criteria e.g. more stringent criteria of haemoglobin levels and more rigorous assessment of donors over 65, which result in higher deferral rates of donors
  • The total number of complaints relating to the other Special Health Boards; National & Support organisations and the Scottish Health Council in 2007/08 was 95.  This has increased from 58 in 2006/07.


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MAIN CONTACTS:

Richard Dobbie
Principal Information Analyst
0131 275 7732
richard.dobbie@nhs.net

Frank Clarke 
Information Analyst
0131 275 6148
F.Clarke2@nhs.net

 
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PRE-RELEASE ACCESS TO THIS PUBLICATION WAS GIVEN TO:

ISD Contacts
GHD Contacts
NHS Complaint Officers and Managers
NHS Board Chief Executives
Chair of NCPAS (NHS Complaints Personnel Association Scotland)
 
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HISTORY OF THIS PUBLICATION:

Last Published: 25 September 2007
Next Due: September 2009
Data Avaliable Since: 1996/97 data


Main contact: Email Richard Dobbie