NHS HOSPITAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

GREGORY ABRAMS DAVIDSON SOLICITORS For you, for business, for life. Home / News   NHS HOSPITAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE If you are unhappy about the treatment you have received from the NHS or you believe the treatment was below the standard you would expect then you are entitled to make a formal Complaint.   Making a complaint will ensure that the treatment you received is reviewed and consideration is given as to whether there have been any failures in the care or treatment provided to you. This could include situations such as delay, misdiagnosis or poor outcomes following surgery.   In our experience concerns about medical treatment and a belief that there has been fault on a health professional often stems from poor communication. The complaints process can therefore be an excellent process to allow the hospital to explain in laymen’s terms the reason for a certain treatment or outcome. This explanation can lead to the patient concerns being addressed and avoiding the need for any formal litigation. It can therefore be a very positive process for patients and health providers.   Contact our Hospital Medical Negligence Claims Lawyers If you have sustained an injury as a result of hospital negligence, contact our Hospital Negligence Claims Lawyers for advice on 0151 7333353 or complete our online contact form.   We can deal with Hospital Negligence claims in North Wales, Merseyside & The Wirral, Lancashire, St Helens and Knowsley, Widnes, Warrington & Cheshire   The Process The hospital investigation usually involves those investigating your complaint reviewing your medical records, Trust guidelines and interviewing the clinicians involved in the care, if necessary. Once all of the facts have been considered, the relevant Trust will determine whether the care/treatment provided to you was of an appropriate standard and will write to you with their conclusions.    Making a complaint not only provides reassurance and answers but when failures are identified it gives the Hospital the opportunity to implement measures to reduce the chance that another patient will experience similar issues in the future. Any failures and training points identified by the complaint should be passed down through the relevant department via the Clinical Lead.  Identify who to write to Knowing who to complain to can seem confusing, especially if more than one organisation is involved. Each hospital or care provider is the responsibility of a “Trust”. For example, the Royal Liverpool Hospital is part of the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This address is usually revealed by using an internet search engine (Such as google) to search the name of the hospital and term “complaint”. Liverpool University Hospitals Complaint address is Quality2@liverpoolft.nhs.uk    If you have multiple complaints about multiple Trusts, then you will need to draft a complaint to each specific Trust. If you need help, please contact us and we will assist you in determining who the best person to write to is.  Carefully set out the facts of the case  Preparing a careful and concise chronology will be key when expressing why you believe the treatment you have received was of a poor standard. Being precise and avoiding lengthy descriptions helps focus the attention of all of those involved. Bullet points are usually helpful in this regard. The more you are able to focus the reader on the key issues, the better. Do not include irrelevant information that may detract the reader from your key complaint. Making reference to poor quality food in hospital may allow the responder to focus on this rather than the important, central complaint. Remember that those investigating will have your medical records to assist them.   If you are struggling to produce an accurate chronology, we are able to obtain your medical records and assist you in this process should the need arise.  Pose specific questions regarding the care Once you have established a chronology, this should be followed with questions surrounding the care that you believe requires answers to. You should provide specific questions regarding the treatment provided, such as: why was my fracture not diagnosed or suspected at the time of my first attendance? You should also provide some general questions such as; Was the overall care in respect of the diagnosis and treatment of my fracture correct?  .   If you require assistance when considering what questions to ask, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Chase safe receipt of the complaint  Ensure that your complaint is acknowledged by the Trust and that they have provided approximate time scales for providing their response. Once they have done so, remain in regular contact to ensure compliance with the turnaround time.  The Response  Delay – All complaints departments are busy and as result you should ask for regular updates to ensure the complaint is dealt with in the appropriate time period. The time scales for a response will be set out when they acknowledge receipt of your complaint. Please be aware that the fact you are engaged in the hospitals complaint process does not affect your time limit (limitation date) in respect of any claim you may wish to bring in the future for medical negligence. Your limitation date continues to run and it is vital that you obtain early advice from specialist medical negligence solicitors.   Dismissed – If you feel the complaint has not been taken seriously or has not been looked into in enough detail, please contact us to discuss your potential claim for clinical negligence In the past, we have had repeated experience with hospitals rejecting the complaint and denying any fault but we have subsequently succeeded in bringing a successful claim and recovered substantial damages and apologies for our clients. Just because the Hospital refuse to acknowledge failures in their complaints process does not mean there has not been an error.    May have made a difference – If there is a suggestion in the response that the outcome “may” have been different but they will never know, our experience is that there is a good chance the outcome would have been different in the absence of the error / delay. If you feel this is the case and you would