Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Research Article

Not another Complaint!

¹Department of Upper GI Surgery, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Heartlands Campus, Bordesley Green, Birmingham, B9 5SS, UK

²Department of Upper GI, New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton WV10 0QP, UK

³Department of Upper GI Surgery, University Hospitals of North Midlands, Newcastle Rd, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST4 6QG, UK

*Corresponding Author:

Christina A W Macano
Department of Upper GI Surgery
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
Birmingham Heartlands Campus, Bordesley
Green, Birmingham, B9 5SS, UK
Tel: 07816503412
E-mail: christinamacano@hotmail.com

Received date: February 07, 2017; Accepted date: February 22, 2017; Published date: February 27, 2017

Citation: Megson M, Macano CAW, Davies S, Zafar Z, Nyasavajjala SM, et al. (2017) Not another Complaint! J Gastrointest Dig Syst 7:491. doi: 10.4172/2161-069X.1000491

Copyright: © 2017 Megson M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction: Surgical patient complaints can be used to identify deficiencies within healthcare provision. The Francis report highlighted that at Mid-Staffordshire multiple complaints had demonstrated the problems at the trust. The number of complaints in the NHS is still rising yearly. Review of patient complaints by clinicians could highlight areas of clinical care requiring improvement. Methods: A University hospitals surgical patient complaints reported to Patient Advice and Liaison Service from 2011-2015 were reviewed. Complaints were classified into: Attitude of Staff, General Nursing, Clinical Treatment, Admission transfer and discharge arrangements, Inpatient appointment delay/cancellation, Consent to Treatment, Communication, Aids and appliances, Other, Outpatient appointment delay/cancellation, Hotel Services and Records. Results: The number of patient complaints within the NHS is increasing. 869 complaints were received. It is often reported that communication is the basis of most complaints but “All aspects of Clinical Treatment” was the most common complaint category, constituting of >50% of complaints. The other common categories were attitude of staff, admission Delay/Discharge and appointments Inpatients/Outpatient. Within clinical treatment the most frequent issues were suitability of treatment followed by delay in providing results. Conclusion: It is often reported that communication is the basis of most complaints however, in this study the commonest complaint related to the suitability of the treatment. This may indicate an underlying problem with communication regarding management decisions, specifically explanation and consent. Clear communication and improving patient engagement in decision could yield dramatic decreases in complaints

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