Complaints and Compliments at our Hospitals
During the period from April to December 2010, GHNHSFT treated over 605 thousand patients (605163). For the same period 1680 concerns and complaints and 3233 compliments were received from our patients.
The majority of these concerns and complaints were regarding communication and the clinical care patients received. This is to be expected as providing care and treatment is our core business.
The concerns and complaints that people bring to our attention cover a broad range of issues in relation to clinical care. These range from staff taking longer than expected to answer call bells right through to issues over a patient’s diagnosis. The common theme that runs through the majority of these complaints arises from the challenges of effective communication and sharing of information.
The thousands of compliments we receive from our patients also relate to the quality of clinical care they have received and for the majority of our patients we do provide a good service. This does not mean that we are complacent. We do not get things right all the time and we encourage our patients to let us know when things have not gone well for them.
As we see increasing numbers of patients, and as patients become more comfortable with the complaints process, the number of complaints also increases. The concerns that are raised help us to identify where we have not met the standard expected by our patients and allow us to make improvements for the future.