Anyone been to the parliamentary health ombudsman.?

[frankieg]

After a frustrating year of following the 'complaints 'procedure about my fathers neglectful treatment at our local hospital , I ended up at this office. So what exactly do they do? I thought they investigated complaints but all they seemed interested in was making the hospital follow the complaints procedure. So is there any government organizations that actually do investigate complaints against hospitals?

[rebel11]

Hi frank

 

Have you Complained to the Hospital trust?

 

You can complain to Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/MinistersandDepartmentLeaders/Ministers/index.htm

 

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/ContactUs/DH_066319

[nolegion]

I am sorry to say, frankieg, that I think your preliminary conclusions on the subject are right. I have taken two complaints to the health ombudsperson (currently f) in the past, when there was a ‘three -tier’ system i.e you could take your complaint to the Healthcare Commission after the hospital\GP practice etc had fobbed you off - and then go to the Ombudsman after the Commission had fobbed you off.

 

The ombudsman’s office was utterly useless on both occasions. It just generated further ways of fobbing the complainant off even more disadinfully. The chances of its actually investigating a complaint from scratch and reaching its own conclusions, are minimal. It will say, if you are really lucky, the hospital ‘could perhaps do more’, and then, eventually, say ‘they have done all they can’ - after absolutely nothing has changed.

 

In theory, if you can identify a particluar doctor at fault, you can refer the matter to the General Medical Council. Don’t bother. They are a complete protect-our-own-and laugh-at patients insulting waste of space.

 

There is currently no realistic way of getting an individual complaint reviewed independently of those responsible for the malpractice or neglect. (Other than litigation, of course - but most people couldn’t even begin to think of affording such a route, and even if you can at the outset, you would risk bankruptcy in the process.)

 

Sorry to be so bleak and emphatic, but a disgrace is a disgrace, and deserves to be called such.

 

I would be glad if contributors here could contradict me with success stories. I won’t be holding my breath.

 

We are just the ‘irritating whine of the complainant’ See, for instance, this article from the on-line Health Service Journal last year (which I would link rather than print, if it didn’t blow hot and cold about the need for £subscription):-

 

Jenny Rogers on the irritating whine of the complainant

 

11 June, 2009

My friend B has been dismayed by the poor standard of treatment her husband has received at their local acute trust.

 

First he is dumped in a geriatric ward with an orthopaedic problem. Then reasonable requests such as “how do I get headphones for the TV set we have rented?” are treated as impertinent infringements of a nurse’s time with a hand held up, traffic cop style, to stop the question in mid flow. Then his discharge is delayed because it is a weekend. The litany goes on.

 

At a social event, B meets the chair of the primary care trust that spends 80 per cent of its commissioning budget with this trust. She starts to explain her disappointment. B reports that this chair simply could not accept that it was an issue for the PCT and shrugged her off by saying she should write to the hospital.

 

The NHS spends huge amounts of its budget settling claims that could easily have been resolved at the earliest stage.

 

Complainants will say that it is not money they want but an apology plus reassurance that the organisation has learned from its mistakes. Complainants describe feeling unheard, of letters going unanswered and legitimate criticism being fended off with inefficiency, lies or indifference.

 

Of course customers can be annoying. It is horrible to listen to people - as you see it - irritatingly whining, when you are trying so hard to get everything right, sacrificing your energy and skill. It is easy then to view complainants as ingrates.

 

In fact, in the NHS it is often difficult to take even the first step. In wanting to comment on our local district nursing service, it took my husband four hours of detective work to find out who managed this service and then a further two weeks to persuade her to answer his messages.

 

A successful organisation actively solicits spontaneous feedback, making it easy to offer bouquets as well as brickbats.

 

In the NHS we often have the reverse.

 

The writer Eileen Shapiro describes pseudo-empowerment: a phenomenon where despite targets and objectives, no one is really accountable for anything, or else accountability migrates mysteriously to someone else.

 

In the early days of the sandwich chain Pret A Manger, the chief executive printed his name and phone number on every bag. Not quite believing his astonishing promise to respond personally to feedback, I rang this number and found I was speaking to the man himself. He dealt charmingly with my comments, and I have been a loyal Pret customer ever since.

 

Why could we not have some simple feedback mechanism like this on every ward, in every GP’s surgery and every clinic?

 

There is an additional twist to my friend’s tale. Until recently, she was a PCT chair herself. As she commented ruefully, “I thought I knew how to make the system work in a joined up, quality way.

 

But it turns out I didn’t.”

Edited November 20, 2010 by nolegion

[frankieg]

Rebel11 , thanks for the info but I cant go to the Trust. When I first made this compliant I was asked if I would be willing to meet with the staff involved -try and 'resolve the issue at a local level'. And I like an idiot I agreed!!. What I didn't know was ,that by agreeing to this local resolution, I lost my right to go to the trust- seems its an either/or thing. The secretary of state for health doesn't deal with individual complaints and the second website lists the 'steps 'of making a complaint'. I've been to every organization listed. None of them have any investigatory powers -that was given to the Ombudsman-and the Ombudsman's decision is final-so no investigation

nolegion You've said what i was thinking, the whole system is against the patient. When I was turned down by the ombudsman I asked' so no one cares how one old man suffered at the incompetence of our hospital'. The answer was. it wasn't that, but the Ombudsman had made the hospital address the points i raised and that was their primary job !! I've been as a nurse for nearly 40 years and I was careful not to base my complaint only on what I saw and was told. I obtained a copy of his chart and,along with the letters I was sent, I've shown inconstancies and downright lies., the blatant negligence. Every point i made was backed with information from the NHS and NICE websites showing how the proper procedures and policies were not adhered to -when I contacted the CQC they were horrified by what happened to dad. But dispute all this I still cant get the hospital to hold an investigation, admit it might, just might, have handled things differently or at least give dad the posthumous apology he deserves .

Oh yes ,even the district nurses who cared for dad after his dismissal were so upset by what happened to him they tried to have an investigation done -they got nowhere.

Edited November 21, 2010 by frankieg
spelling

[sick.as.a.chip]

Rebel11 , thanks for the info but I cant go to the Trust. When I first made this compliant I was asked if I would be willing to meet with the staff involved -try and 'resolve the issue at a local level'. And I like an idiot I agreed!!. What I didn't know was ,that by agreeing to this local resolution, I lost my right to go to the trust- seems its an either/or thing. The secretary of state for health doesn't deal with individual complaints and the second website lists the 'steps 'of making a complaint'. I've been to every organization listed. None of them have any investigatory powers -that was given to the Ombudsman-and the Ombudsman's decision is final-so no investigation

nolegion You've said what i was thinking, the whole system is against the patient. When I was turned down by the ombudsman I asked' so no one cares how one old man suffered at the incompetence of our hospital'. The answer was. it wasn't that, but the Ombudsman had made the hospital address the points i raised and that was their primary job !! I've been as a nurse for nearly 40 years and I was careful not to base my complaint only on what I saw and was told. I obtained a copy of his chart and,along with the letters I was sent, I've shown inconstancies and downright lies., the blatant negligence. Every point i made was backed with information from the NHS and NICE websites showing how the proper procedures and policies were not adhered to -when I contacted the CQC they were horrified by what happened to dad. But dispute all this I still cant get the hospital to hold an investigation, admit it might, just might, have handled things differently or at least give dad the posthumous apology he deserves .

Oh yes ,even the district nurses who cared for dad after his dismissal were so upset by what happened to him they tried to have an investigation done -they got nowhere.

 

How terrible! I do hope you got somewhere with this??

[bhall]

You could try

 

http://nhscomplaintsadvocacy.org/

 

Give them a call, talk about your concerns and sound them out.

[Sali]

Frankieg, I am truly sorry to hear about your dad's neglect in hospital. It's an all too common story these days. I cannot contradict Nolegion's opinion of the Ombudsman. In fact I agree wholeheartedly with the view. But who will investigate the Ombudsman? I know it is possible to go to judicial review, but if, like me, you are already beaten and worn down by the whole long drawn-out complaints procedure, it seems just more of the same - totally pointless.

 

The Dept of Health, the NHS and bodies such as the NMC, the GMC, the CQC and the Ombudsman are not there to protect or defend the patient or grieving families. Never were there so many inward-looking or blinkered institutions.

 

I remain aghast that we continue to allow gross negligence, unprofessional behaviour and extreme incompetence to too often go unpunished in our health service. There are existing laws that could be enforced, but our cowardly Establishment turns a deaf ear and a blind eye, shirking its responsibilities. It prefers to keep churning out reports. So much easier than actually doing something!

 

Those two dreadful (only two!) nurses at Mid-Staffs who have been dismissed (finally - how many years did it take the NMC?) after their despicable and negligent behaviour was exposed, remain free to work as care assistants. Unbelievable!

 

The proposed idea (by Bruce Keogh or Mike Richards) for inspection teams and public councils is all well and good, but what we need is a way of raising issues in real-time with people who can make a difference there and then. To listen. To be honest when mistakes occur. To try to put things right. To promptly expel the incompetent, incapable and careless. To learn.

 

I lost count of the number of complaints I made on behalf of my relatives verbally and in writing to all levels and it made not a jot of difference (God help me that it didn't make things worse). Accountability (and I don't mean being allowed to retire with a huge pension) will focus the minds of those in charge. To me, the NHS is synonymous with hopelessness and despair. It wasn't that I didn't look hard for something good - it just wasn't there.