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The Health Service Ombudsman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R.A. Oswald*
Affiliation:
Office of the Health Service Commissioner for England (Ombudsman), Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BW
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“We have no credibility”. That was the response of a woman with a mental illness who put a complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman. Unlike many – not just patients but also a significant number of NHS staff – she had heard that the Ombudsman could carry out a completely independent investigation of complaints although she was not clear about the extent of his jurisdiction. Some people feel intimidated when trying to take on what they see as a powerful and defensive NHS and others experience a sense of despair that because of their illness their concerns have no validity. Those providing care and treatment generally do the best they can to attain high professional standards but delivery does not always match expectations and the outcome can be a complaint. Services for the mentally ill are not immune from shortcomings and, if local management fails to satisfy the complainant, the Ombudsman can step in.

Type
Briefings
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994
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