The simple life

In interviews for features for Bettercaring.com, health and social services often get short shrift from people who’ve had bad experiences.

Yet while people are happy to complain to journalists like me, they are generally more reluctant to make a formal complaint. The reasons, they say, are simple; the complaints procedure is over complex, inefficient and not worth the bother.

It appears the government has agreed. After making a commitment to reform the complaints procedures for health and adult social care in its White Paper ‘Our health, our care, our say’ last year, the Department of Health has now revealed how it plans to do this.

For example, there are currently separate complaints procedures for health and adult social care which makes it difficult for people who use a combination of services to make a complaint. Under the new regime there will be a unified complaints procedure, which should help simplify matters and encourage more people to complain.

Elsewhere, the new system will also focus on local resolution and then - if unresolved – it will be investigated by the Health or Local Government Ombudsman. This will replace the often lengthy and bureaucratic procedures currently in place.

Anything that helps simplify the system should be welcomed. For too long the system has been over-complicated and more of a hindrance than a help to the service user, and has put many off making a complaint.

But if these reforms are to be successful, it should be heavily publicised, to ensure older people especially know about their rights and that it will not prejudice their care in the future.

Hopefully this will be the first of many reforms to simplify the health and social care systems this year; social care funding is next on the list, with a Green Paper due in the next few months.

From what I’ve heard, it can’t come soon enough.