Campaigners’ Anger At Complaints Backlog

A backlog of complaints means patients can wait years before their concerns about the NHS are dealt with, campaigners claim.

The Scottish Patients Association said the complaints process was taking so long that the sick and vulnerable could be dead before they got a response.

The warning came ahead of a report, which is being published tomorrow, looking at how public services in Scotland handle grievances.

The review has taken more than a year to complete.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), which deals with complaints concerning the NHS, councils and other public bodies,

has 685 cases across all sectors waiting to be dealt with.

Today, representatives of patient groups will take their concerns to Nicola Sturgeon, Holyrood’s Health Secretary.

Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scottish Patients Association, said: “It is taking far too long to deal with complaints.

“These are people who are often ill and it is taking so long that by the time they get the results back they could be dead.”

A spokeswoman for the SPSO said the 685 complaints currently on their books was a “caseload” and not a “backlog”. In January, there were 1,022 cases on its books.

The SPSO receives around 40 complaints each week, with 26 investigators currently working on the caseload.