Complaints in hospitals are appallingly dealt with.

Watchdogs rail about lack of NHS office sense - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"Complaints in hospitals are often appallingly dealt with because junior clerks fail to apply common sense, the Health Service Ombudsman has warned, writes Laura Donnelly.

Ann Abraham said that distressed patients and bereaved relatives were often left battling bureaucracy when "a bit of courage and common sense" was all it took to resolve simple issues.

Speaking ahead of publication of her annual report on the NHS, Miss Abraham said she was concerned that hospitals and GPs were not learning simple lessons raised in countless reports.

Latest figures show the total number of complaints rose to 138,000 by 2006, a rise of 5,000 on the previous year. Meanwhile, 8,000 unresolved cases were passed to the NHS inspectorate, the Healthcare Commission - more than twice the number it expected when it took on the role three years ago. On top of this, hundreds of complaints are going to the ombudsman's office, with latest figures due out on Thursday.

Both watchdogs expressed concern that NHS staff are not dealing with complaints properly."

"Marcia Fry, the head of operational development at the Healthcare Commission said that its current audit of hospital complaints suggested more than a quarter of trusts made little effort to ensure that patients did not suffer worse treatment if they complained.

The results of the audit, due out in September, will show that in 27 per cent of cases, it was not clear that patients who raised complaints would not be discriminated against.

Miss Fry said that staff needed clear information on patients' rights and training to ensure they were not "inadvertently discriminating" against those making complaints."

It seems odd to focus on 'inadvertent' discrimination against those making complaints, when there is such massive intentional discrimination against complainants...)o: