Information for Patients

Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman

If, you are dissatisfied with the local response, a complaint can be pursued with the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman. This is the final rung of the Complaints Process. Contact details for the Ombudsman can be found at the Ombudsman website [LINK: Welcome to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman | Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)] The Health Service Ombudsman is independent from the NHS and the Government and carries out investigations into complaints about the service a patient has received from the NHS in England. The Ombudsman aims to treat everyone fairly and impartially and it is confidential and free. However, some complaints can take a long time to investigate. You must bring the complaint to the Ombudsman’s attention within one year of becoming aware of the cause of the complaint. If your NHS Complaints Procedure has taken longer than it should have done to resolve the complaint, the time limit for making a complaint to the Ombudsman can be extended.

The Ombudsman will usually reply to a patient’s complaint within 20 days indicating whether or not the complaint will be taken on for investigation. Upon the conclusion of the investigation, the Ombudsman sends a report setting out the recommended remedies to the patient and body complained about. The possible remedies would include an apology, an explanation of what went wrong, a change of decision, repayment of costs incurred by the patient as a result of a mistake, a change in procedure, improvement of facilities, and the provision of consolatory payments in respect of distress or inconvenience although this can be somewhat rare. Although the Ombudsman can recommend financial recompense to be made to cover out-of- pocket expenses incurred by the patient, they have no power to award wider compensation such as damages for pain and suffering, future loss of earnings or for care or bereavement.