Complaints
NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (CWICB) is responsible for buying and monitoring healthcare services (known as commissioning) for people living in Coventry and Warwickshire. This includes most hospital and community NHS-funded services and includes primary care services (such as GPs, dentists and opticians).
Although CWICB aims to commission the highest quality of services, sometimes it may be necessary for you to contact us about a service. If there’s something you’re unhappy with, we’d like to know about it, so that we can try to put matters right. We believe that all feedback is an opportunity for us to better understand and improve patient experience and the quality of our services .
We want you to feel confident to raise a concern or make a complaint and recognise the importance of ensuring:
- It is simple to do so
- You feel listened to and understood.
- You have made a difference and feel confident to make a complaint in the future.
When we receive a complaint, we are committed to making sure it is addressed and resolved at the earliest opportunity. Our staff will identify any complaint that may be resolved quickly. If we consider that the issues cannot be resolved quickly, we will take a closer look into the issues.
Help and support with making your complaint
If you would like advice or support through the complaints process, the NHS Complaints Advocacy Services may be able to help you. These are free, confidential services which offer help and information in making a complaint about the NHS. You can contact the appropriate service by using the following details:
Healthwatch
Healthwatch is independent from the health and social care services you use. Their job is to ensure that local people’s views are heard in order to improve the experience and outcomes for people who use them.
Healthwatch Coventry
Telephone: 0300 0120315 (The main office number is open between 11 am and 3 pm Monday-Friday)
Email for general enquiries: yoursay@healthwatchcoventry.co.uk
Website: https://www.healthwatchcoventry.co.uk
Warwickshire Residents:
If you would like independent advice or support through the complaints process and you live in Warwickshire, VoiceAbility may be able to help you. This is a free, independent and confidential service that offers help and information in making a complaint about the NHS. You can contact VoiceAbility using the following details:
Voiceability
Office F8, Enterprise House
Foleshill Enterprise Park
Courtaulds Way
Coventry
CV6 5NX
Telephone: 0300 222 5947
Email: CWAdvocacy@voiceability.org
Website: www.Voiceability.org/Coventry&Warks
Citizens Advice Bureau
Your local Citizens Advice Bureau can be a great source of advice and support if you want to complain about the NHS, social services or local authorities. You can find your local Citizens Advice Bureau on its website.
Where to go if you are not satisfied
If you are not satisfied with our response you can write to us stating the reasons why you are dissatisfied. We will arrange to review and provide a further response to your complaint, unless agreed otherwise.
You have the right to take your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, if you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the NHS. The Ombudsman will generally only consider your complaint once you have completed CWICB’s complaints procedure and received your final response.
If the Ombudsman is of the opinion that CWICB can do more to resolve your complaint, they will refer your complaint back to us. It is therefore very important to allow CWICB every opportunity to try to resolve your complaint.
You can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman at:
Address:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
London
SW1P 4QP
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
How do we listen to and improve patient experience?
Healthwatch Warwickshire
Provide information and signposting on complaints and listen to, and improve, patient experience by feeding back to the ICB, amongst other services.
Telephone: 01926 422823 (The main office number is open from 10am - 3pm, Monday to Friday.)
Email: info@healthwatchwarwickshire.co.uk
Website: http://www.healthwatchwarwickshire.co.uk/
National Patient Surveys
The NHS Patient Survey Programme systematically gathers the views of patients about the care they have recently received. All commissioned providers are expected to carry out patient experience surveys and act on responses to improve the services that they provide.
Friends and Family Test
The NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT) was created to help service providers and commissioners understand whether their patients are happy with the service provided, or where improvements are needed. It is a quick and anonymous way to give your views after receiving care or treatment across the NHS.
Patient Stories
It is now normal practice for ‘Patient Stories’ to be used to help Trust Boards to understand how it feels to receive healthcare services. This information is routinely monitored by the ICB.
Care Opinion
The ICB uses Care Opinion to listen to what patients, service users and carers are saying about our commissioned services.
Holding Providers to Account for Patient Experience and Insight
We hold our service providers to account through routine monitoring of patient experience data and reports. This is discussed at Clinical Quality Review Meetings (CQRM) which are attended by representatives from our providers and the ICB’s Quality Leads. This offers the ICB opportunities to discuss the detail, identify any trends and assure itself (where appropriate through quality assurance visits) that the experience of its patients – both positive and negative – is being used to drive quality improvements across the healthcare system.
Quality within the NHS is made up of the three components – Patient Safety, Patient Experience and Clinical Effectiveness. Our Quality and Nursing Team work together to ensure that we learn from people’s experience of care and promote a culture of learning and continuous improvement across our system. Patient experience data such as patient satisfaction surveys, complaints, compliments, and patient stories helps us understand how the services we commission can be improved.
