NHS complainants sought by health watchdog
A health watchdog is seeking people who have made a complaint about the health care they have received in the Shropshire area.
Healthwatch Shropshire, which describes itself as "an independent health and social care champion" for the county, says while the vast majority of people are satisfied with the care they or their relatives receive from the NHS, sometimes things go wrong.
When this happens, they say people often want to register their concerns to prevent the same problems happening to others, get answers to their questions or receive an acknowledgement that things should have been done better.
Healthwatch Shropshire want to know about people's experience of lodging a formal complaint.
The group says they want to hear if people achieved the outcome they sought through the complaint, if they felt supported making the complaint, had the information they needed, and how they were treated.
They want to hear from anybody that has raised an issue with any health or social care service including hospitals, GPs, mental health services, community health services, pharmacists, opticians, residential care and children’s services.
Lynn Cawley, Chief Officer of Healthwatch Shropshire, said: "Everybody has a right to complain about their care and treatment when they feel that it has not gone as well as it should have done.
"Our Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service can support people through the NHS complaints process.
"We know from our experience how difficult it can be for patients and relatives to go through the process, as it often involves raising difficult issues, from a distressing time in their lives, which can be emotionally challenging.
“Every health and social care provider, from large hospitals to GPs through to care homes, has a complaints procedure for people to follow.
"We would like to hear from people who have either lodged a complaint, or have considered lodging a complaint and decided against it, in the last two years.
"We can then use these experiences to work with the health and social care sector to highlight where things have gone well and where there may be room for improvement.”
People can share their experiences with Healthwatch Shropshire through an online survey smartsurvey.co.uk/s/HWSComplaints or by contacting them by phone on 01743 237884.
