NHS should welcome 'citizen whistleblowers'

[Northerner]

People who see something going wrong in the NHS should be able to report their concerns, even if they haven't been directly affected, according to Anna Bradley, the chair of patients' group Healthwatch England.

In this week's Scrubbing Up, she says the NHS often doesn't let witnesses file complaints - an omission akin to preventing people reporting an abandoned bag at an airport because they don't have the owner's permission.

We know that patients are reluctant to make a fuss when standards slip on hospital wards.

Many simply don't know how to make a complaint, others are actually scared of the consequences.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30333071

 

[pav]

12 months after my last complaint about my local hospital and their assurance that they will correct the errors the same thing is still happening. All they seam to have done is put more staff (administration types) in place to do the job.

The ward in particular I found was the worst one in the hospital when I put my complaint's in. Staffing of nurses appeared to Ber higher unless it was shift hand over time, looked cleaner though it looked as though the ward had recently gone through a refurbishment program along with several others as there have been building on site for months if not even longer.