Earlier this year, Healthwatch Isle of Wight undertook visits to St Mary’s Hospital to ascertain the accessibility of the IW NHS Complaints procedure and found that it requires improvement.
Healthwatch reported late last year that an estimated two thirds of people that either experienced or witnessed poor care did not make a formal complaint. One of the main reasons cited for this is that the complaints procedure is too complicated and time consuming.
The visits in February and March were undertaken by specially trained ‘enter and view’ volunteer panel members, who looked at how complaints information was displayed and also what knowledge NHS staff members had of the local complaints procedure.
Out of 24 areas visited within the hospital only 6 were displaying posters or leaflets containing information on how to make a complaint, some of which contained outdated information.
Conversations were held with 29 staff members and the responses were varied. Some staff stated that they could deal with the complaint themselves or would refer people to the PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison) team, whilst others either only signposted people to PALS or said staff alone assist with complaints.
Manager of Heathwatch IW, Joanna Smith said:
“Healthwatch were disappointed to find a lack of materials pertaining to complaints throughout St Marys hospital, and we were particularly concerned about the content and quality of the information that was available.
“It is unlikely based solely on the information we saw during these visits that people would have sufficient information about how to make a complaint and to feel confident that their complaint would be managed effectively”.
Article continues below this advertisement
In response to Healthwatch IW’s findings the Trust’s Executive Director of Nursing, Alan Sheward, has said that posters and leaflets will be redesigned and that they will be available in all departments and made clearly visible.
Mr Sheward said:
“The Trust is committed to ensuring that patients and their relatives are supported in raisin a concern/complaint and we are truly learning lessons from this valuable feedback to improve the patient experience of of our services”.
This Enter and View report will be utilised along with results from the complaints survey Healthwatch recently undertook, to inform an overall report into the current IW NHS Trust Complaints Procedure.
The full report containing 5 recommendations for improvement is now available along with the IW NHS Trusts formal response, by visiting www.healthwatchisleofwight.co.uk.
Anyone who wishes to share their experiences (good or bad) of local health and/or care services with us can do so by ringing 01983 608608 or by emailing [email protected].
