Title: Trusts need to improve their handling of complaints, commission says
Abstract: The NHS in England is getting worse at responding to complaints, according to the largest measure of patients’ grievances, published this week.
The NHS watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, says that overall justified complaints from patients are rising and involve poor communications, hurried consultations with GPs, and a lack of basic nursing care.
The commission has published a report looking in detail at 10 366 complaints lodged between August 2006 and July 2007 and concludes that the NHS has a lot of work to do to improve the way it handles complaints.
The report says that numbers of complaints are …