CCG Complaints impact report, Birmingham

Healthwatch Birmingham previously published a report in relation to people who were not satisfied with their experience of making a complaint to the two Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) about services commissioned by them. At that time, the Clinical Commissioning Group complaints teams did not have systems in place to routinely hear people’s feedback about their complaints service.

As a result of this, Healthwatch Birmingham discussed these issues with the local CCGs and have published this impact report outlining the improvements made by the Commissioning Group complaints teams.

Some improvements made by the NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG are that they now: routinely conduct ‘mystery shopper’ exercises to monitor call quality and identify any training needs; actively promote their complaints service (Time2Talk) by encouraging their General Practices to display flyers and posters in their reception areas and; send a letter at the end of the complaint process, which encourages complainants to give feedback about their service, alongside a feedback questionnaire and prepaid envelope.

Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group say that the report has influenced a number of improvements to the complaints process for patients, including a new process for gathering feedback from complainants, with a view to shaping and improving the service for the future. This will help the CCG to fully benefit from patient’s experiences and insight, and help us to commission the best healthcare for local people.