A Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report has classed more than one in three investigations into deaths or forms of avoidable harm at hospitals as being ‘inadequate’.
The report has prompted Dr Katherine Rake, Healthwatch England Chief Executive, to call for a “complete overhaul of the complaints system”.
Reviewing 150 complaints that alleged patients died or suffered some form of avoidable harm at the hands of medical negligence by the NHS, the PHSO reported that 28 of these cases should have been investigated as a Serious Untoward Incident (SUI) which allows for doctors to learn from their errors. However 71% of the reviewed cases weren’t pursued as an SUI which suggests a failing in care.
Dr Rake said the research “shows that tens of thousands of people are being failed by the NHS and yet never report it because they have no faith the complaints system will make any difference.”
Julie Mellor, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said: “Investigations weren’t carried out when they should have been and when they were carried out they did not find out or explain why failings happened. When people make a complaint that they have been seriously harmed they should expect it to be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.”
Those interviewed for the review spoke of feeling “belittled” and “misled” by staff.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We have set out the ambition to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world and know that listening to patients and staff is absolutely vital to improving care.
“That’s why we’ve made NHS hospitals legally obliged to apologise to patients when mistakes do happen, introduced complaints handling as a crucial element of tougher hospital inspections and asked Robert Francis to produce an independent report on how to create a more open NHS culture.”
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