Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve the effectiveness of the internal NHS complaints system.

Patients have the right to complain about any aspect of National Health Service care, treatment, or service. The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 set out the minimum standards NHS organisations must adhere to in respect of their complaint handling arrangements.

The Department has worked closely with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on their work to develop the NHS Complaint Standards, which set out how organisations providing services in the NHS should approach complaint handling. The standards place a strong focus on several key aspects of complaint handling and set out practical advice and good practice to help NHS organisations improve.

In addition to these arrangements, the Care Quality Commission has an important role in ensuring NHS providers have an effective and accessible system for handling complaints from service users.