In this month’s edition of the Ombudsman’s findings, we highlight the importance of learning from complaints
This month we published decision reports from 18 complaints investigated by the Ombudsman. 13 of these were about health services, one about health and social care, three about local government and one about a university. The outcome of these 18 complaints were
- Fully upheld: 9
- Some upheld: 3
- Not upheld: 5
- Resolved: 1
The Ombudsman has also published one investigation report which details the care and treatment of a patient who died suddenly from a blood clot following knee surgery. She has published this report in full so that others can learn from the findings to prevent similar outcomes in the future.
Recommendations and feedback
We made 43 recommendations to public bodies. Eighteen of these asked the organisation to apologise to the complainant for the failings identified.
We made a further 23 recommendations for learning and improvement. Several recommendations asked public bodies to reflect on complaints, involving the appropriate staff to identify learning and improvements that enhance service provision. Complaints are a valuable tool. Beyond providing feedback about the quality of services, complaints can also identify systemic issues. It is important that public bodies utilise these opportunities for learning.
All our published decision reports can be read in full on our website.