Where a complaint involves more than one NHS Trust, it is in everyone’s interest to cooperate fully in seeking to resolve the complaint. Many complaints cover family practitioner services, hospitals, ambulance Trusts and social care and some can only be properly investigated as part of the same complaint.
For example: the complaint may cover a patient’s whole experience, but this was shared in service terms between an NHS Mental Health Trust, an Ambulance Trust and an NHS acute Trust to which the patient had been admitted.
A Local Authority could also be involved, as the provider of supported accommodation. This type of complaint could involve the most vulnerable service users.
It may be clear at the outset that there is joint accountability over the issues to be addressed, because the complaint involves
or
- an NHS body and a primary care provider.
It may not be clear who is accountable: the complaints procedure may be the only way in which responsibility for what happened and why can be teased out.
Duty to cooperate
Options for handling the complaint
Example of a Joint Complaints Procedure
Independent review by the Healthcare Commission
|
