denotes premium content | Oct 8 2008 News
posted 11 Mar 2008
UNIFIED COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE ANNOUNCED
The department of health is to introduce a new unified complaints system for health and social care, to make it easier for people to complain when things go wrong. This will address the current situation under which there are separate complaints procedures for health & adult social care, making it particularly difficult for people who use a combination of services to make a complaint.
The new two-stage complaints system will focus on local resolution and then - if unresolved - an investigation by the Health or local government ombudsman, to replace the often lengthy and bureaucratic procedures currently in place.
Charlotte Potter, senior policy officer at Help the Aged, commented that attempts to make it easier for older people to feed back concerns over the quality of care they receive are “welcome”. She continued: “They are also much more likely to be using both services, so adopting a unified complaints procedure will be of particular benefit to older people. If it is going to make a difference however, they will need to ensure that older people are fully aware of how to make a complaint, the response that they can expect and the fact that making a complaint will in no way jeopardise the care that they receive in the future.”
