Key question: responsive?
Population group: All groups
These examples relate to Key Line of Enquiry (KLOE) R4: How are people’s concerns and complaints listened and responded to and used to improve the quality of care?
When we inspected
Practice 1
We saw that a complaint which had been received in April 2014 had not been acknowledged or responded to until September 2014. Two complaints had been logged as concerns and not dealt with in line with the complaints procedure or included in the complaints log.
There was no process in place to review complaints annually in order to identify themes or trends. It was not clear from minutes of meetings how learning from complaints had been disseminated to staff.
Practice 2
The practice did not have a system in place to govern the effective management of complaints. The practice had a complaints handling procedure and the practice manager was the designated staff member to manage the complaints.
However, information was held in different places and there was no audit trail to ensure which complaints still required action. There was no system in place to analyse and learn from complaints.
There were no formal meetings attended by clinical and non-clinical staff to discuss the complaints, ensure they were handled appropriately, analysed and learnt from.
Why this is inadequate?
The complaints process is unclear. There is no effective system to ensure all complaints are handled appropriately and that meaningful learning takes place from them. Therefore, concerns and complaints cannot lead to improvements in the quality of care.