Southern DHB acts on letters complaints

The Southern District Health Board wants to standardise its communication with patients after finding that this area is the source of 28 per cent of the complaints it receives.

Doctors send letters to patients for all sorts of reasons – from diagnosis information to treatment plans – and 350,000 letters were sent in the past year, or 1800 a day.

The letters are written on 12 different systems, by 100 clinicians, from more than 20 specialities, using more than 1000 templates – making them inconsistent and confusing.

Executive director of clinical governance and quality Gail Thompson said: ‘‘People have tried to make lives easier, but in doing so, it made things more complicated.’’

Complaints about the letters ranged from people getting their treatment instructions by post too late or being sent to the wrong hospital, to inappropriate wording.

Hospital Advisory Committee member Dr John Chambers recalled: ‘‘One letter said you should be seen in four weeks, but we can only see you in nine weeks. That’s distressing.’’

The board will now work with the Canterbury DHB and South Island Alliance to use the standardised templates it created for its Patient Information Care System – a central, digital patient administration system.

Plans will also be made to start using more text and email communication.

‘‘We can’t send letters to everyone, it’s not appropriate,’’ Thompson said.