Bradford and District NHS Complaints
Background
Research carried out by Healthwatch England in 2014 found that two thirds of people do not complain when they receive or witness poor care. There has been significant focus within the NHS in recent years on improving the complaints process, and in particular, learning from complaints. But despite these efforts, we still continue to hear from local people who find the complaints process difficult to navigate.
As a result of these concerns, and in partnership with Bradford’s Independent Complaints Advocacy Team (ICAT), we decided to investigate these issues further, to try and understand more about local people’s experiences of making a complaint. We ran a survey asking people about their experiences of making an NHS complaint, in partnership with the Independent Complaints Advocacy Team. We had almost 100 responses.
Key findings
• People found the complaints process challenging even with positive support from independent specialists.
• Key issues reported included; a lack of communication, lengthy timescales and no faith that their experience will be used to make improvements to services.
• Many put off making a complaint because they fear it will affect the care they receive in the future.
It’s important people are able to make a complaint quickly and easily if their care has fallen short of expectations. This helps people feel safe, but also provides services with vital information about the treatment they provide, and how it can be improved. We know that some health providers in Bradford are keen to improve people’s experiences of making complaints, and we hope that the findings of the report will help make this happen.
As an organisation that works independently with local citizens helping them navigate the complex NHS complaints procedure we know how difficult people can find it. At ICAT we aim to help people make sense of the complaint process, get voices heard and try to help them receive fair and equitable treatment. It’s our hope that together with Healthwatch and the findings of this report we can improve the NHS complaints handling in Bradford & District, make the process more equitable and streamlined, more meaningful for patients and ultimately a useful learning tool for the NHS organisations.
Downloads
If you need this report in a different format, please contact us:
info@healthwatchbradford.co.uk
01535 612545
We have shared our findings and a number of recommendations with local service providers and CCG’s with the aim of improving the complaints process locally.
