{"id":454,"date":"2015-03-21T08:04:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T08:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/?p=454"},"modified":"2015-03-17T12:07:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:07:37","slug":"health-watchdog-accused-of-siding-with-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/health-watchdog-accused-of-siding-with-nhs\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Watchdog Accused of Siding With NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Patients and their families have accused the Parliamentary and Heath Service Ombudsman (PHSO) of siding with the NHS during investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The PHSO was established to investigate complaints made by patients and their families regarding poor or unfair care.<\/p>\n<p>However, the independent regulator has come under intense criticism lately, with many calling for its head Dame Julie Mellor to resign.<\/p>\n<p><b>Report by the Patient\u2019s Association<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The grievances of patients have been taken to the Patient\u2019s Association, which has since compiled a damning report into the Ombudsman.<\/p>\n<p>The report created by the Patient\u2019s Association found that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than half of patients claimed the PHSO \u201ctakes sides with the organisation it is investigating\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Nearly half felt it was \u201cunwilling to challenge\u201d NHS organisations<\/li>\n<li>The Ombudsman \u201cfails to investigation complaints fully\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The Ombudsman \u201cproduces final reports full of inaccuracies\u201d<\/li>\n<li>It \u201cmakes patients feel like they are a nuisance for complaining\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the 200 patients who raised concerns was Mr Poulton, whose wife died from ovarian cancer in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>He complained to the Ombudsman about the care his late wife received, but says the investigation was inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFact were wrongly stated, wrongly interpreted and in addition other relevant facts were not considered at all\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt totally let down by the Ombudsman. They seemed very ready to evade things and not confront failings at the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This experience was shared by many parents whose babies died at the scandal-hit University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust.<\/p>\n<p>James Titcombe\u2019s son Joshua died at Furness hospital in 2008 after a simple infection was left untreated.<\/p>\n<p>The Ombudsman refused to investigate the death, saying it would be \u201cunlikely to result in a worthwhile outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The regulator later carried out an investigation after Mr Titcombe began a judicial review, but concluded there was \u201cno evidence that the midwives colluded to present \u2018false evidence\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This conclusion has been overturned in a report by Dr Kirkup who chaired an inquiry into the Trust\u2019s failings.<\/p>\n<p>He found that in actual fact midwives had made a \u201csignificant and regrettable attempt to conceal\u201d the truth and this was \u201callowed to distort some of the processes of the investigation that ensued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cLet down\u201d by Ombudsman<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patient\u2019s Association, said: \u201cPatients feel completely let down by the PHSO which overlooks or ignores evidence, takes far too long to communicate with families, is dismissive and insensitive and leaves patients feeling that they are in the wrong for raising a complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you too feel like you have been let down after complaining to the PHSO, it may be worth speaking to a solicitor about the options available. If there are grounds for a medical negligence claim, you will be able to take legal action against the NHS organisation at fault.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, please get in touch with us at Glynns Solicitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patients and their families have accused the Parliamentary and Heath Service Ombudsman (PHSO) of siding with the NHS during investigations. The PHSO was established to investigate complaints made by patients and their families regarding poor or unfair care. However, the independent regulator has come under intense criticism lately, with many calling for its head Dame [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[466,74,465,467,464],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhs-complaints","tag-health-ombudsman","tag-nhs-complaints-2","tag-parliamentary-and-heath-service-ombudsman","tag-patients-association","tag-phso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}