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The East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust (ESNEFT) received 119 complaints to the health watchdog last year, up from 74 the previous year, as the Trust's Chief Nurse emphasises their commitment to learning from patient feedback.
Why it matters: ESNEFT serves thousands of patients across East Suffolk and North Essex, making its complaint handling and service improvement crucial for local healthcare quality.
The details: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman figures for the year to March show:
119 complaints were received about ESNEFT
One complaint was resolved through mediation
38 were resolved after the primary investigation
Three required detailed investigation
Two detailed investigations were completed, with both partially upholding complaints
What they're saying: "We take all complaints seriously and encourage patients and their families to make contact with us when they have concerns about their care," says Catherine Morgan, Chief Nurse at ESNEFT. "Our Complaints team welcome the opportunity to look into what has happened and work with the patient and family."
For context: The health watchdog only handles serious cases where complainants have already gone through the trust's complaints process. It's estimated that just a quarter of all complaints reach this stage.
The bigger picture: ESNEFT's 60% rise in complaints significantly outpaces the national trend, which saw a 5% increase from 27,441 to 28,780 complaints across NHS services. Rebecca Hilsenrath, the ombudsman, says NHS complaints have almost doubled in the past decade, warning: "Unless the NHS listens and learns when things go wrong, the same mistakes will continue to be made, and patients will be put at risk."
Looking ahead: Despite the sharp rise, Morgan notes improvement is underway: "In the first nine months of this year, we have seen a reduction in the number of complaints from the same nine-month period in 2023/24."
The bottom line: "We take forward the lessons learnt from our investigations, and those found through the ombudsman's findings, to prevent similar issues from being raised again and make improvements to our services," Morgan says.
Sources
Note from the editor: It should be noted that between March and July 2020, complaints were paused to be reviewed to enable health organisations to focus on the immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This may have delayed some of the complaints raised during that period, which are still being worked through. However, it should also be noted that this would've been true at all trusts nationwide.
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