Bad experience of ombudsman
I ASSUME that the letter from the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in last week’s HT was part of a “promotional” campaign, so I must issue a severe word of caution to anyone considering using it.
These are not just views based on my own experience as they are largely echoed by, for example, The Patients’ Association and the Care Quality Commission who have described it as unfit for purpose.
Firstly, it is not truly independent and is heavily biased in favour of the NHS.
There are a few “tests” of independence and it fails on every front.
Secondly, it uses staff with limited expertise to assess sometimes complex clinical issues and processes.
As these staff invariably are drawn from and return to the NHS there is a clear pressure to toe the line.
Thirdly, its assessors have no real understanding of the approach and techniques needed to undertake a rigorous and objective investigation and can therefore (as in my case) totally miss the point.
Similarly, they are inflexible – one does it their way or not at all.
Finally, they are the end of the road – there is an appeal process for decisions they make, but it is internally run and over any matter of consequence will always decide in favour of its colleagues.
Following a mishap during minor surgery, I spent two months at a hospital and a further four months getting through the immediate repercussions.
During the two months pretty much confined to bed, there were a number of occasions where the medical staff inconsistently and sometimes wrongly approached my treatment at a very basic level and had it not been for my own vigilance, might well have made an already serious condition worse.
Although I just wanted to provide feedback, the only way of doing this was to raise a complaint which took me through the Trust’s own complaints procedure and on to the PHSO.
I made it clear from the outset that I did not want compensation, just that they put things right but unfortunately they were not prepared to match my honesty with their own. If, therefore, you do end up with them you will have to be very patient (years not months) and be prepared for a disappointing result.
JP R White