6 Conclusion
82. The exposure of the failure of Mid Staffordshire
Hospital, the Mid Staffordshire NHS Hospital Trust and of NHS
leadership to hear both the complaints of patients and their families,
and the complaints of their own staff, defines what must change
in the leadership of the NHS and its component parts. This also
has lessons for Whitehall and public services. Good complaints
handling ensures that individuals achieve fair and swift redress,
and creates systematic improvement. It also encourages citizen
engagement with service providers. Complaints become a positive
dialogue rather than a negative dispute.
83. As so often in our reports, we highlight that
success depends on the right leadership. Government must to ensure
that leadership of public services values complaints as critical
for improving, and learning about, their service. Only if the
leadership adopts a positive attitude toward complaints will all
parts of the service adopt the same attitude with those they lead
and with the public they serve. To achieve this change is a difficult
but vital challenge, and one that must be addressed now if we
are to avoid what PHSO referred to as the "toxic cocktail"—a
reluctance on the part of citizens "to express their concerns
or complaints" and a defensiveness on the part of services
"to hear and address concerns"—poisoning efforts
to deliver excellent public services.
|
