From April to November The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has upheld nearly double the number of complaints compared to the same period last year.
The Ombudsman has completed 2,532 investigations in this period, compared to 867 the year before, when it upheld 244 complaints.
Following feedback and workshops, the Ombudsman has undertaken to reform and improve its processes.
This will include conducting more investigations and conducting them faster, with the average time to complete a case having fallen to 223 days, with an end to detailed assessments before investigations begin.
The ombudsman has also pledged to use discretion to investigate serious health cases brought outside the 12 month period required by law.
Other improvements include:
• More face to fact interviews
• Casework examples published
• Performance statistics to be published online monthly
• An on-line complaint form
• Standardised service and methods
• Better communication and outlining what can be done by the ombudsman
• Agreeing key facts to speed investigations
• Sharing methodology at the start of the investigation
• Regular updates for complainants
Julie Mellor, parliamentary and health service ombudsman, said: ‘We have made important changes to our service including giving more people justice by doing thousands of investigations every year and halving the average time it takes to complete a case, whilst maintaining satisfaction with our service and decisions."
Mellor added: ‘If someone has a poor experience of our service it really matters to us and that's why our focus is on listening and learning so we provide an even better service to the 27,000 people whose complaints we deal with every year.'
