“However, the vast majority of those who were dissatisfied did not make a formal complaint, largely because they felt it would come to nothing.  This report shows that they were right”.

“The current complaints system is confusing and little help is available for would-be complainants to navigate the system. What’s more, an excellent opportunity to improve health and social care services is being lost because the NHS and social services do not systematically learn from complaints”. 

“Criticism is not necessarily destructive and the NHS and social services need to find ways to channel what they learn into service improvements.  Until they do, public pessimism over making a complaint will remain well-founded”.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the National Audit Office (NAO) published its report into how complaints about health and social care services are handled. 

According to an NAO survey, around one in seven people using NHS and social care services in the past three years have been dissatisfied with their experience. 

However, only five per cent of those who were dissatisfied with the NHS and 32 per cent who were dissatisfied with social care went on to make a formal complaint. The main reason people did not complain formally was that they did not feel anything would be done as a result.

The report finds that navigating the complaints systems is not straightforward, particularly for health service users. Over two thirds of those making a complaint were not offered any help in navigating the complaints process and a fifth said their experience was difficult. 

Additionally, neither the NHS nor social care has any formal means of capturing cross-organisational learning.

10 October 2008

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