Watchdog to help patients ‘is lacking in compassion’
THE health watchdog lacks compassion and is failing those it is meant to protect, according to a patients’ group.
In a report it said the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman service was unresponsive and too complicated.
It is the third time in two years the Patients Association has censured the ombudsman.
The health watchdog is the last resort, other than legal action, for patients whose complaints are not dealt with properly by hospitals.
But the report says it favours the organisations it is supposed to be investigating and makes those who complain feel a nuisance.
‘It is unacceptable that the experience of too many complainants remains of a system which is too complicated, unresponsive and lacking in compassion,’ said Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association. ‘The number of calls that our national helpline receives about the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman remains high.
‘The majority of complainants are motivated to complain by a desire to improve the system for others by sharing the poor experiences they have had. The PHSO, representing the final stage in the NHS complaints process, should act as a reliable, fair and robust final arbiter.
‘As evidenced by the wide variety of contacts received by the Patients Association, this is not the case.’
Dame Julie Mellor, the ombudsman, has criticised the NHS on similar grounds, accusing it of building a ‘wall of silence’.
But Mrs Murphy said the watchdog was guilty of the same mistake. ‘Nothing seems to have improved and lessons do not appear to have been learned,’ she added.
‘Some people describe that they feel they are “battling the PHSO” and, although they are determined to pursue their complaints, they feel exhausted by the whole process.’
Dame Julie is due to leave her role in the coming months, having handed in her notice last July over the way she handled correspondence con- cerning her deputy Mick Martin. He resigned last April after it was claimed he assisted in the cover-up of a sexual harassment case when he was a senior executive at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Dame Julie is to remain in post until a successor is appointed, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks.
A PHSO spokesman said last night: ‘We receive more than 100,000 enquir- ies and investigate 4,000 cases a year.
‘Our processes are fair and robust and we constantly seek feedback from complainants to improve our service. We recognise there can be times when people find it hard to agree with our findings.’
Last night a mother accused the ombudsman’s office of compounding her family’s grief.
Angela Mays, from Hull, submitted a complaint to the PHSO after her daughter Sally died at the age of 22.
The young woman took her own life after nurses from Humber NHS Foundation Trust’s crisis team refused to admit her to hospital in July 2014.
At an inquest the following year coroner Paul Marks ruled that Miss Mays, who had an emotionally unstable personality disorder, would not have died that day had she been admitted. Mrs Mays turned to the ombudsman in June 2016, claiming the Humber Trust had not adequately investigated the case.
It took 18 weeks to assign someone to investigate the issue and a summary of the complaint sent to the trust twice misrepresented the matter.
Mrs Mays said: ‘Our interactions with the PHSO have significantly compounded the enormous stress under which we as a family are living. Our experience has been deeply upsetting and enormously frustrating.’
‘Lessons have not been learnt’