NHS Complaints Handling Hot Topic Report
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Healthwatch Nottingham & Nottinghamshire conducted a Hot Topic survey, between November 2023 and March 2024, into the National Health Service (NHS) complaints handling process to understand how people engage with the complaints process. They explored how people found the different stages of the complaints process, and what stopped them from making a complaint if they were dissatisfied with the service involved.
A total of 190 people responded to the survey, with a significant proportion of them reporting dissatisfaction with NHS care in the past two years, and only a third formally submitting complaints to NHS providers. Hospital services were the most complained-about category, followed by mental health services and general practitioners (GPs). While the NHS has very good guidance in place to make the complaints process work, the system does not always appear to be uniformly delivering on this. Based on our findings, recommendations have been made and the report has been shared with the commissioners