WAQ76501 (e) Wedi’i gyflwyno ar 10/05/2018

Pa gamau y mae Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet yn eu cymryd i sicrhau ymateb amserol gan fyrddau iechyd lleol i bryderon a chwynion a godwyd gyda hwy, a pha gamau a gymerir i wella amseroedd ymateb yn hyn o beth?

Wedi'i ateb gan Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Iechyd a Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol | Wedi'i ateb ar 18/05/2018

The NHS (Concerns Complaints and Redress Arrangements) (Wales) Regulations require health boards and Trusts to take all reasonable steps to respond to concerns within 30 working days of receipt.

 

If a health board or Trust is unable to respond within 30 working days, it must notify the person who reported the concern, explain why it is not in a position to respond within the 30 working day time frame and send the response as soon as reasonable practicable, and within six months of the date the concern was first notified. 

 

The Regulations also provide that if exceptional circumstances mean that the six month period cannot be adhered to, the health board or Trust must advise the person who notified the concern of the reason for the delay and when a response may be expected.

 

Thus the Regulations set a clear framework for responding to concerns. This framework is enhanced by the reporting regime that has now been implemented to monitor the time taken by health boards and Trusts to respond to complaints.  

 

Following a recommendation in the Evans Review “Using the Gift of Complaints”, a working group was established with Welsh Government officials and NHS staff to create a national complaints dataset for Wales. Its purpose was to require health boards and Trusts to report data on complaints and concerns in a consistent manner so that the data can be used to drive improvements in learning from complaints (and compliments).

 

Health Boards and Trusts are required to submit data to the Welsh Government on a quarterly basis.  A series of pilots were run, and routine data collection began in April for the first quarter of 2018.  In terms of monitoring the timely response to concerns, NHS organisations are required to report on (i) the total number of concerns settled during the quarter that were responded to within up to and including 30 working days; (ii) the number of concerns that took more than 30 working days and up to and including 6 months to settle; and (iii) the number of concerns settled in that quarter that took more than 6 months to settle.        

The NHS Wales Delivery Framework measures the NHS throughout the year on the delivery of services that contribute towards the goals of the Public Health Outcomes Framework for Wales. In 2017-18 the Framework was amended to include a new delivery measure: a target for health boards and Trusts to provide  a final response to concerns within 30 working days of receipt in 75% of cases.   

 

The target was set at 75% as it is recognised that a percentage of concerns are too complex to respond to in a comprehensive way within the 30 working days. Thus the target takes account of the need for a good quality response to concerns to help ensure a satisfactory resolution of concerns whenever possible.