Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman: addressing the failings

摘要

Tere is nothing more important than a person's health. The importance of managing care and helping a sick person to get better is a task generally shared by those close to the patient. Being ill will often involve the whole family in the caring process; when things go wrong, the family, along with the patient, will require urgent answers because they are or have been part of the caring process. This familial perspective of illness and health care is vividly illustrated by the Patients Association (PA) report (PA, 2015) into the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) and the problems currently encountered by patients and their relatives when making a complaint about the NHS to that Office. It is clear from the report that, when the complaint-handling process fails, it is not only the patient who suffers, but also the patient's immediate family carers (and, in some cases, other health carers who have been involved in the care of the patient). The ripples of failure reach many people and levels.