UK patients unhappy with NHS service

New report says only one in three patients who feel they receive poor care at the hands of the NHS feel it is worth complaining.

The National Health Service has been under the spotlight for quite some time now. Poor medical treatment, neglect, extreme waiting times has meant many are unhappy with the service being provided.

Research commissioned by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman that is in place to deal with complaints about bodies like the NHS say the process should become simpler.

A survey of more than 4200 people saw that 27% had been unhappy with with the service and care they had received by the NHS but of those 27% only 34% made a complaint with the most common reason for not complaining was that it was considered pointless.

Healthwatch that looks at the rights of the consumer in health and social care are concerned at the number of people who receive poor care but do not complain.

Anna Bradley its' chairwoman said, "At the moment we estimate that more than 2,000 incidents of poor care a day occur across the country's health and social care services, yet the system only hears about a fraction of them because of the sheer effort it takes for patients to make themselves heard.

Meanwhile the department of health has said the process of making a complaint has been made simpler. One of their spokespeople said, "Listening to patients and staff is vital to improving care. That's why we have made it easier for people to know how to complain through clearer information, we've made hospitals legally obliged to apologise to patients when mistakes happen and introduced complaints handling as a crucial element of tougher hospital inspections."

Anna Bradley said Healthwatch will be championing the cause and taking action, “On Monday we will be writing to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on behalf of the thousands of patients we have spoken to and the many hundreds of thousands whose concerns have fallen into a black hole, outlining how we can use the draft bill to fix the complaints system once and for all.”

 MW/MH

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