19.08.14
NHS complaint records made public
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has released the details of a number of NHS complaints, which highlight a raft of serious failures in spotting serious illnesses.
Members of the public and services providers, for the first time ever, will be able to go online to see the various types of complaints.
In particular, details of 81 investigations the Ombudsman has completed are now being made available for the public to search online
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust misdiagnosed a man as having a blood clot when he actually had a tear in the blood vessel from his heart to his body. This resulted in his death.
The Ombudsman found there had been a number of missed opportunities in the care provided to the man and recommended the trust pay his wife £2,000 in recognition of the missed opportunities to save his life.
Julie Mellor, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said: “Our investigations highlight the devastating impact that failures in public services can have on the lives of individuals and their families.
“For the first time MPs, members of the public and service providers will be able to go online and see the types of complaints we have investigated. This will help MPs to see what complaints have been made about public services in their constituency and will help provide confidence to people to complain when they see what happened to other people.”
Of the 81 accessible cases, 23 involved Parliamentary cases and 58 involved healthcare cases. Among the Parliamentary cases; seven were about UK Visas and Immigration; six were about HM Courts and Tribunals Services, including that of a woman who wasted thousands in hiring a barrister only to find her case had been cancelled at short notice due to an administrative error and three were about Cafcass.
Among healthcare cases, two were about Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust; two were about Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – one of which involved the hospital misinterpreting a scan of a patient with lung cancer; and one involved Barts Health NHS Trust.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “Listening to patients is one of the best ways to improve standards and we welcome this increased transparency around complaints. Hospitals should make sure patients, their families and carers know how to complain – including displaying information on the complaints system in every ward.”
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