Yorkshire and Lincolnshire NHS trusts rank amongst most complained about

It has been reported that the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is the third worst Trust in the country for complaints filed against it. The Trust includes Pontefract, Pinderfields and Dewsbury hospitals.

More than 1,400 people filed a complaint against the Trust. 67 complaints were referred to the Ombudsman, 15 of which were investigated and 3 upheld. The next highest was Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust which is the largest in the region and among the biggest in the country with 1,066 complaints, 118 complaints were also referred to the Ombudsman and 3 upheld.

Before a complaint can be made to the Ombudsman, the patient making the complaint should give the organisation they are complaining about the opportunity to respond to the complaint and put things right. Because of this most complaints about NHS organisations tend to be resolved at local level. Should the patient remain unhappy with the response from the organisation, the Ombudsman can then be approached.

The commonest grievances raised by patients tend to relate to problems with treatment, the ‘attitude’ of staff and misdiagnosed health problems. This has been revealed in Britain’s first hospital complaints league table.

Sally Napier, Chief Nurse at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust commented – “The Trust has a robust and accessible complaints procedure to ensure concerns are fully addressed and that the patient experience is continually improved….We always recommend that people speak to the ward manager if they are an inpatient, or the doctor or receptionist if they are attending an outpatient clinic in the first instance. When patients feel they can’t do this our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can step into to help patients get the answers they need.

Professor Suzanne Hinchliffe, Chief Nurse of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust commented – Understandably, on a small number of occasions, not everything will go as planned, and when patients have problems or concerns about an aspect of our service we actively encourage them to contact us. Learning from this feedback helps our staff to make improvements. We do everything possible to resolve matters satisfactorily when a complaint is made.
It would appear that patient dissatisfaction is on the increase as the number of written complaints about the service has risen up to 174,872 from 162,019 the year before.

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in Medical negligence compensation claims, and have obtained substantial compensation for our clients. Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/Medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our Medical negligence solicitors on the free phone number below.

Posted by: Carol J Simpson, Associate, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP, Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Telephone Freephone 0800 028 2969