Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what alternative routes of redress are available to patients whose complaints about NHS primary care services are not investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is an independent body, accountable to Parliament, and ministers cannot comment on or intervene in its decision making. In deciding which complaints to investigate the PHSO takes a range of factors into account including the severity of injustice, wider public benefit, and potential systemic issues to ensure the best use of its resources. Further information on how cases are prioritised is available on the PHSO’s website.

Every patient should receive the highest standard of care from the National Health Service, and where this is not the case there are a number of ways in which patients can raise concerns. This includes the NHS complaints process where complaints can be made to the provider of NHS care or to the commissioning body that funds the service. Patient Advice and Liaison Services can help to resolve concerns informally, while the Friends and Family Test provides patients with the ability to provide feedback and to rate their experience. Where concerns are about the safety or quality of a service, they can be brought to the attention of the Care Quality Commission as the independent regulator of health and social care in England or the relevant professional regulator where concerns are about a medical or healthcare professional.