Impact Report : the importance of Clinical Commissioning Groups using complainant feedback to improve the quality of their complaints systems

Healthwatch Birmingham investigated the experiences of six people who were dissatisfied with how their complaints had been handled by Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). The review found that, at the time, the CCG complaints teams did not routinely collect feedback from people about their experience of using the complaints process, limiting opportunities to learn from complainants and improve services. 

Healthwatch brought together complaints managers from NHS Birmingham and Solihull CCG, NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG, and advocacy provider VoiceAbility to explore how patient and public involvement could be strengthened within complaints services. Discussions identified both barriers to collecting feedback and the potential benefits of using complainants' experiences to improve complaints handling processes. 

As a result of the work, both CCGs introduced new ways of gathering feedback from people who had used their complaints systems. NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG implemented feedback questionnaires, improved data collection processes, strengthened links with VoiceAbility, promoted its complaints service more actively and introduced mystery shopper exercises to assess service quality. NHS Birmingham and Solihull CCG also introduced a new process for gathering feedback from complainants to help shape future service improvements. 

Healthwatch concluded that involving complainants more directly would help commissioners better understand people's experiences and improve the quality of complaints services. The report highlighted the value of routine feedback in identifying issues, improving communication and ensuring complaints systems are responsive to the needs of patients and their families.