The Healthcare Commission assumed responsibility for the second stage of the national health service complaints process (complaints where the complainant is dissatisfied with the action taken at local level) in August 2004. Under the previous NHS system there were about 3,400 review requests a year; the Healthcare Commission expected that it might receive up to 5,000 requests. Since August 2004, the Commission has received around 8,000 requests a year for independent review.
The Department is working with the Healthcare Commission to improve the way in which cases are handled and reduce the backlog of cases which has built up. Actions taken by the commission include:
in March 2006, it introduced an initial review process with a view to dealing with 65 per cent. of cases within eight weeks;
it has made available additional internal resources to fund 25 additional temporary case-handling staff to deal with the oldest cases;
it has recruited a business process expert to review procedures and make changes to improve the efficiency with which cases are handled;
it is taking steps to share the lessons learned from the cases it has reviewed; and
it has commissioned a national audit of complaints handling at local level which will feed into the annual healthcheck process in 2006-07 to encourage best practice by trusts in complaints handling and to focus efforts on local resolution of cases.
The Department has introduced new regulations which extend the flexibility for local NHS organisations to respond to patients. This should reduce the number of complaints reaching the Healthcare Commission. The Department is also looking at common areas of complaint to see whether further advice could be given to the NHS which might lead to fewer people having cause for complaint.