hospital complaints procedure?

[misdee]

has anyone made a a complaint against a hospital? since dh fell very ill in dec he has been in out and out of hospital, mainly our local one. local hospital insisdted dh had a chest infection/pneumonia etc even tho anti biotics never stopped his problems and actually caused several painful vein collaspes. they were useless at testign for his warfarin levels and were never on times with medication. we kept on the hospital about checking his heart function and contacting his cardiologist who is basaed at another hospital but under the same NHS trust. they only consulted a cardiologist once the whole time dh was in there (around 3 weeks in total). when dh was discharged each time he ended back up in hospital. i called the ambulance out once, told them the situation, heart failure etc, and they wouldnt take dh into hospital. i contatced a gp end of january who came out, and he actually dh cardiologist and knew what dh heart problem actually meant symptom wise and got him admitted to the other hospital. i feel that dh essentially lost of month of treatment time, and had unnesscery anti biotics and suffered painful vein collaspes due to the poor attitude of the local hospital. what can we do about it if anything?

[Snugs]

NHS Hospital Complaints tells you the full course of action to take misdee.

[joesy]

Every hospital has a complaints procedure. If you contact the hospital they will give you the persons details of whom you should contact.
Go for it.

[Davros]

There's usually something called PALs, can't remember what it stands for but its there to liaise between patients with problems/complaints. Might be worth contacting first but don't let them put you off complaining properly if you want, they could certainly tell you the procedure.

[Surfermum]

Its the Patients' Advice and Liaison Service! I work in the NHS and used to deal with complaints. The Trust's PALS Officer would be able to send you details of the complaints procedure, but I would suggest that you put your complaint in writing and send it to the Trust's Chief Executive. We used to send a leaflet about the complaints procedure to the complainant with the acknowledgement letter to let them know about timescales for response etc.

I used to have to do a monthly report on complaints received (and compliments!) for our service and we would set objectives for improvements or action if any were needed. These were then followed up by our Clinical Govenance Dept to make sure they happened. I would say it's worth doing if you aren't happy.

Sorry you and your dh have had such a rough time.