Complaints Annual Report 2011/2012
This report incorporates complaints handling for Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust and Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust for the period 1 April 2011 8 January 2012 and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for 9 January 31 March 2012 1. Introduction On 9 January Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust (BNHFT) acquired Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust (WEHCT) to form Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This report incorporates complaints handling information for all three NHS organisations for the full year 1 April 2011 31 March 2012. Although the this report provides information from the two predecessor organisations, the directors of the FT (BNHFT from 1 April 2011 8 January 2012 and HHFT from 9 January 2012 31 March 2012) were not accountable for, nor had managerial control, for the performance and results of WEHCT. This report will be made public on the Foundation Trust website and in accordance with the NHS Complaints Regulations 2009 and it will also be sent to NHS Hampshire as commissioners of the Foundation Trust services. At Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust we work hard to deliver an excellent service and positive experience for our patients. We realise that there are occasions when we do not achieve this and we take all complaints very seriously. We aim to learn from complaints and see how we can improve the quality of the service we provide. To achieve this we will try to remedy the situation as quickly as possible, resolving the issues and ensuring that individuals are listened to, treated with respect and treated fairly. 2. Background to NHS Complaints From 1 April 2009, a new system for handling complaints about health and social care services was introduced. The previous system involved three stages (local resolution, consideration by the Healthcare Commission and consideration by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman). In order to encourage a simpler and more flexible approach to handling complaints and a greater amount of local resolution, the new system has only two stages, the first being a complaint to the healthcare provider or commissioner (to allow for local resolution) followed if necessary by a referral to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. The Foundation Trust follows the Department of Health guidance and legislation (the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009) and the approach to complaints handling at Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust focuses on the complainant and is based on the principles of good complaints handling. These have been published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and endorsed by the Local Government Ombudsman and the principles are: getting it right; being customer focused; being open and accountable; acting fairly and proportionately; putting things right; seeking continuous improvement.
3. The NHS Constitution The NHS Constitution, published in January 2009, reaffirmed the rights of patients when making a complaint. The NHS Constitution states that patients have the right to: have any complaint made about NHS services dealt with efficiently and to have it properly investigated; know the outcome of any investigation into a complaint; take a complaint to the independent Health Service Ombudsman, if they are not satisfied with the way it was dealt with by the NHS; make a claim for Judicial Review if they think they have been directly affected by an unlawful act or decision of an NHS body; compensation when they have been harmed by negligent treatment. The NHS Constitution also states that the NHS commits to: ensure patients are treated with courtesy and receive appropriate support throughout the handling of a complaint; acknowledge mistakes which happen, apologise, explain what went wrong and put things right quickly and effectively (pledge); ensure that the organisation learns lessons from complaints and uses these to improve NHS services (pledge). 4. Annual Complaints Figures In 2011 / 2012 the following numbers of formal complaints were received: Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS FT (01 April 2011 08 Jan 2012) 177 Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust (01 April 2011 08 Jan 2012) 191 Hampshire Hospitals NHS FT (09 Jan 2012 31 Mar 2012) 117 Full year / all complaints 485 The following tables present the number of complaints for each organisation and are presented by division. Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust Number received Apr 11 May 11 Jun 11 Jul 11 Aug 11 Sep 11 Oct 11 Nov 11 Dec 11 Corporate 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Family 3 4 4 2 3 1 4 1 4 Medicine 17 14 10 6 9 6 11 16 5 Surgery 15 16 3 5 7 5 4 2 2 Total 36 31 17 13 19 12 19 19 11
Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust For WEHCT data, where a 0.5 is shown this reflects where a complaint was shared with another service. Number received Apr 11 May 11 Jun 11 Jul 11 Aug 11 Sep 11 Oct 11 Nov 11 Dec 11 Corporate 5 0 4 0 4 0.5 0.5 0 2.5 Family 4 3.5 3 2.5 1 1 5 1 1 Medicine 8.5 9 11 5 9 10.5 7.5 8.5 6.5 Surgery 11.5 5.5 7 7 7 18 6 6.5 5 Total 29 19 25 15 22 30 20 16 15 Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Number of complaints received Jan 12 Feb 12 Mar 12 Corporate 0 1 1 2 Family 7 7 9 23 Medicine 26 18 15 59 Surgery 11 13 9 33 Total Complaints 44 39 34 117 Total for Q4 When an individual complains they are referring to their experience and therefore, all complaints for the period 01 April 2011 31 March 2012 were upheld by the Trust and handled accordingly. In order to ensure that complainants have access to appropriate support, as part of the complaints handling process, complainants were signposted to the independent complaints advocacy service (ICAS) if they need help to with a complaint. At the time the final response is sent to the complainant complainants are also signposted to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) (stage 2 of the NHS complaints process) in case they wish to take their complaint further. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust aims to acknowledge complaints within three working days and responded to formally within 25 working days. Where delays are expected these are communicated with the complainant. There have been improvements to complaints handling through improving the level of personal contact with complainants via the telephone or in person and the majority of complainants and their family were offered a meeting at the beginning of the formal complaint process. This practice was started within BNHFT and has been carried on through Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from January 2012. 5. Categories of Complaints
Complaints are recorded and categorised to help the organisation identify themes and trends and identify improvement actions in response to the findings. Work continues within Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to continue to improve the categorisation and recording of complaints. The subject for the categorisation of formal complaints is presented here, based on the KO41 categories. Subject / category Total number of complaints Admission, discharge and transfer arrangements 28 Aids and appliances, equipment, premises (including access) 5 Appointments delay / cancellation (outpatient) 33 Appointments delay / cancellation (inpatient) 17 Attitude of staff 36 All aspects of clinical treatment 255 Communication / information to patients (written / oral) 31 Consent to treatment 0 Complaints handling 8 Patients privacy and dignity 3 Patients property and expenses 2 Personal records (including medical and / or complaints) 0 Failure to follow agreed procedures 2 Hotel services (including food) 0 Other 65 Total 485 7. Complaints and the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO) A total of seven referrals were made to the PHSO by complainants. No further investigation or actions have been required within year. Summary of Basingstoke and Winchester Ombudsman complaints to date 2011/2012 Organisation Basingstoke Winchester Number of referrals 6 1 Number closed in year 6 no further actions required 1 no further actions required Actions required outstanding Nil to date Nil to date 8. Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) The Patient Advice and Liaison service (PALS) plays a very important role in providing speedy resolution of patients concerns or complaints, as well as sign posting, sourcing information and receiving compliments for the organisation. PALS usually work either face to face, on the phone or increasingly by email to resolve patients problems with a minimum of fuss or inconvenience to the patient. Their success is demonstrated by the fact that most issues are satisfactorily resolved by the PALS team.
An informal concern handled by PALS that is not resolved to the individuals satisfaction will be escalated to a formal complainant to ensure satisfactory resolution. All concerns and issues raised, whether formal or informal, are dealt with in a professional manner. 9. Learning from Complaints Many changes have been made through the year in response to issues raised and include: Review and stopping of the automated voice messaging service to confirm appointments All patient information leaflets for procedures have been reviewed to re-emphasise that the appointment time is not the procedure time. In some areas patients are warned that their appointment may take several hours to complete if investigations are required Appointment times in the DTC have been staggered to reduce the waiting time Communication between endoscopy staff and the pre-op lounge coordinator has been improved so that any delays can be communicated promptly to the patients and relatives waiting in the reception area. An endoscopy nurse is now identified to be responsible for booking patients in and, if required, providing specialist advice on discharge. A new electronic system for reviewing test results (ICE filing) has been introduced in the maternity department and staff have been trained in its use The Maternity Unit has set up a designated time each day when women can contact the unit to discuss their results. 10. Listening, Learning and Responding To enable better planning we routinely ask our patients for their views on our services. We are committed to ensuring that all services are fit for purpose and that patients are involved in designing services to meet their needs. Patient representatives worked alongside the clinical team in designing and commissioning both the new Firs ward and the Acute Assessment Unit at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital The Foundation Trust has a long history of seeking feedback and consulting with users at all hospital sites. Current engagement activities include: The Patient Experience Group (Governors) The Patient Voice Forum Patient Advisory Liaison Service (PALS) Complaints NHS Choices website Communications with membership Volunteers Real Time Feedback and local satisfaction surveys National Surveys The Foundation Trust has good examples of how patient involvement and feedback has contributed to service improvements. Involving the cancer partnership support group to produce patient support information
Patient representatives have had a voice on and contribute to key projects such as the acute assessment unit 11. Patient Groups and Feedback Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust Within the Trust an active patient representative group, the Independent Patient and Public Involvement Group, met monthly throughout the year. The group made a number of ward visits and participated in a number of key trust working groups including the Patient Safety Committee, PEAT Group, Patient Experience Group and the Outpatients Project Board. Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust The Patient and Public Involvement Forum renamed itself in November 2011 to form the Patients Voice Forum (PVF). The PVF supported the Foundation Trust in reviewing a number of areas including the patient discharge process, phlebotomy and internal hospital signage. Members visited wards across the Foundation Trust during the year to 7undertake inpatient satisfaction surveys and gain informal feedback which was shared with the clinical teams. The Council of Governors sub group, the Patient Experience Group (PEG) met quarterly until December 2011. It discussed all aspects of patient experience including on outpatient improvement programme, hourly rounding on the wards, the theatre productivity project and survey results and action plans. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust From January 2012 both patient groups adopted the Patient s Voice Forum name and have started to consider how they will achieve a wider understanding of patient activities and experience across all three hospital sites. Their highly valued experience and support will be used in the new HHFT projects into 2012/13. The new HHFT Patient Experience Group is being established and will be chaired by a Governor. 10. Actions for 2012/2013 Improvements planned within the customer care team for 2012/ 2013 include: Embedding the improvements made which ensure closer working with the divisions Updating the complaints policy and publishing this on the website Updating the Foundation Trust complaints patient and visitor information Improved complaints monitoring through updating complaint category information collected Monitoring patient experience of the complaints handling process and Ensuring that lessons are learnt and shared throughout the organisation