Should Foundation Trusts be able to withhold complaints data?

This morning, the NHS Information Centre released a report on complaints data from across the NHS.

No major news in terms of the number of complaints, a 2.4% decrease when comparing to the previous year and a 0.5% increase when comparing the 352 trusts that supplied data for both years. But there lies the more significant news.

There are 11 trusts that have chosen not to submit their complaints data for both the 2009-2010 report and the 2010-2011 report. Disappointingly this year, 18 further trusts who submitted their data in 2009-2010 withheld their information this time round. This means that of the 137 FTs, 29 have not submitted their complaints data.

We’re disappointed by this. Quite apart from the fact that the Government’s Transparency Agenda calls for all patient feedback to be public, patients have demanded for a long time that the NHS be more honest and open in it’s communication. If the health service really is dedicated to transparency and accountability then there must be a system in place to ensure that the public can see patient feedback across all trusts, and not just those that choose to release it.

It's very difficult to see how these trusts are taking complaints seriously when they refuse to be open about their patients’ concerns. This data also fails to provide the full picture of patient experience, as it only includes written complaints and not the growing trend towards online feedback.

There’s been some significant criticism across the national press and from patient organisations today towards the FTs that have decided to ‘opt out’ of this complaints report, so we’ll be very interested to hear the reaction of the trusts over the next week.

We hope that the ever increasing pressure from patients will encourage the trusts who have shied away from transparency to truly understand the need to be accountable to the people they serve.

Today's Daily Mail coverage, with Paul's comment

Today's Daily Telegraph coverage, with Paul's comment