DHB’s high complaint numbers

Wellington’s health service had one of the highest number of complaints made against it over the past year, second only to Auckland.

The Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) this week issued a report analysing complaints about district health boards in the six months to June 30 showing the Capital & Coast DHB had 45 complaints.

Improvement and patient safety general manager for CCDHB Sandy Blake said while they were confident the vast majority of patients received safe and high-quality services, ‘‘no injury to a patient under our care is acceptable’’.

‘‘Like all DHBs, we continually look at how to improve our services.’’

Blake said all complaints were thoroughly reviewed and investigated, and all recommendations from the HDC were implemented.

Commissioner Anthony Hill said that while complaints about DHB services across New Zealand were slightly down, complaints about mental health services had risen. Between January and June 2019, the commission received 427 complaints about DHBs around the country, slightly down from an average of 452 complaints in previous years. Only 28 of 427 resulted in an investigation, the report showed.

Issues with surgical services accounted for nearly a third of all complaints. These included unexpected treatment outcomes, waiting list or prioritisation issues and missed diagnoses. Of those, general surgery, gynaecology and orthopaedics were most commonly complained about.

Sandy Blake

Mental health services, medicine and emergency department services were other sore spots for patients, in that order.

Missed, incorrect or delayed diagnoses were the most common specific issue overall.

The commissioner’s report found more than three quarters of all complaints referred to issues with care/treatment. Communication, access and funding issues, and consent and information given were also common problems across the DHBs.

Complaints about mental health services also increased slightly, from 20 per cent to 23 per cent in the 2018/19 year. Hill said there could be a number of factors driving this, including the mental health workforce being under ‘‘significant ‘‘ pressure.

The HDC is an independent watchdog set up to protect the rights of health and disability services consumers.

. . . ‘‘no injury to a patient under our care is acceptable’’.