Appendix G
TRUST BOARD
OVERVIEW OF PALS, COMPLAINTS AND LITIGATION 2004
FOURTH QUARTER 1 JANUARY 2005 – 31 MARCH 2005
PALS
Total number of issues: 900
% responded to within 24 hrs: 81%
Total referrals to complaints: 13
Complaints
Total formal complaints: 176
% responded to within 20 working dates this quarter: 70%
Litigation
New litigation claims: 9
New personal injury claims: 3
Claims withdrawn/settled: 10
A total of 26 new litigation claim were received in the last year and 8 personal
injury claims. We have closed 29 litigation cases and 12 personal injury cases in
the last year.
1. Introduction
This report concerns the relationship between the key components of risk
management and clinical governance. These are PALS, complaints and
litigation. The report presents a summary of these areas for the last
financial quarter and includes a comparison of the previous quarter.
2. PALS
As a result of joint working arrangement between complaints and PALS,
this report will be combined, which will establish a uniformed approach to
the delivery of information to the trust.
This section identifies and summarises the activity of the PALS team over
the last quarter, listing key achievements.
During this period 900 clients, have contacted the PALS service. This
averages out at 300 clients per month.
Appendix G
PALS top 6 complaints (graph contained in appendices)
► Appointments - including outpatients (mainly cancellation & delay in
receiving appointment)
► Treatment/Care - (quality of nursing or medical care)
► Access - including outpatients (hospital generally - via telephone)
► Admission date - (cancellation/rescheduling)
► Transport
► Communication - including outpatients (poor or conflicting)
N.B. Below are the top 5 issues categorised as “other”. “Other” refers to
issues received where the trust is not necessarily at fault.
► General advice (i.e. how to get referred to hospital, how to get a
GP, local accommodation info)
► Outpatient queries (i.e. checking appt dates)
► Information requests (i.e. list of GPs)
► Complaints advice
► Access to records
2.1 Education and Training
Awareness Sessions
The PALS team hold regular presentations about their service and
interpreting issues to staff at the Royal Free and RNTNEH sites.
PALS staff also provide bespoke customer care awareness sessions
to individual departments.
Customer Care
The PALS team together with SEDC are fully involved and committed
to providing the mandatory service value sessions and take the lead
on the ongoing evaluation and improvement of these.
Clinical Governance Reporting
PALS provide quarterly reports to a number of groups including the
individual divisions and clinical directors.
Appendix G
2.2 Changes to Service Delivery as a result of PALS involvement
The following changes were agreed as a result of issues raised by
patients and staff:
Several patients raised concerns about the failure of transport to
collect them for appointments for tests. It became apparent that
this was in part due to the fact that staff in X-ray and Nuclear
Medicine did not arrange transport at the time of arranging the
appointment. Outpatient staff now complete a transport booking
form at the same time the patient is referred to either department.
This form will be passed to the patient to hand to the clerk in either
department who will complete the date of the test and ensure the
booking form is then delivered to transport.
A complaint was received from a GP regarding the length of wait
for a colonscopy, for what was potentially a “cancer” patient. The
length of wait was due to the GP not using the correct pro-forma
and thus the patient receiving an appointment some ten weeks
later. It was realised that the GP had been unaware of the correct
pro-forma to use. As a consequence, all the cancer pro-formas are
now available on the hospital’s website.
3. Complaints
The complaints statistics for this quarter show that there has been a rise in
the number of complaints being made from 138 to 176
3.1 Response Time
70% of all new complaints (complaints received in the last quarter) were
responded to within the 20 day target.
3.2 Overall performance for this quarter – Directorate/Divisions
Directorate/Division Number Number Overdue Average
received replied reply
(days)
Women’s & Children 11 5 2 23
Division
Surgical and 35 23 4 16
Associated Services
RNTNE 23 21 1 12
Medical Specialities 55 38 1 18
Private Practice 3 2 0 16
Operational Services 35 20 10 15
Cancer & Associated 12 7 1 14
Services
Total 176 118 19 16
Appendix G
3.3 Graphical report on complaints
Please see the appendix for graphical reports on:-
Complaints by subject
Complaints by directorate/division
3.4 Graphical report on complaints
Top five complaints for this quarter are:
Attitude of staff
Clinics
Delays
Transport
Cancellation
3.5 Independent Review – Healthcare Commission
The Trust has 4 complaints referred to the Healthcare Commission
this quarter and 6 referred to the Healthservice Ombudsman.
Appendix G
4. Litigation
3.1 Overview
The Trust has received 9 new claims and 3 personal injury claims
in the fourth quarter of 2004. We currently have 165 litigation
claims of which are 85 active, and 13 personal injury claims of
which 8 are active.
This quarter saw litigation claims closed for the following reasons:
Damages agreed outside court
Withdrawn
3.2 How the claims are categorised
The 9 claims in the fourth quarter can be categorised in the
following divisions.
Directorate/Division Number
received
Women’s & Children Division 1
Surgical and Associated Services 3
RNTNE 2
Medical Specialities 2
Private Practice 1
Operational Services 0
Cancer & Associated Services 0
Total 9