Health official plays down complaints increase
A health official said there was no cause for concern, despite a significant increase in the number of complaints about NHS Lincolnshire.
Edie Butterworth, director of quality and involvement, said that alarm bells were not ringing, despite a 53 percent increase in the number of complaints. In total, the trust received 59 complaints in the last quarter, with GP services and dental services the most common causes for concern. There were 26 complaints about GP services and 12 complaints about dental services.
Speaking at a board meeting yesterday, Ms Butterworth said that there did not appear to be any exact cause for the increase in complaints and people did not need to be alarmed because individual services still had very low numbers of complaints. Ms Butterworth said that it was a positive thing that so many people had been able to come forward and identify problems with NHS services in the area; the trust aims to make the complaints process simple and quick so that patients can help health bosses to identify problems and find a solution.
Dr David Baker, a local GP, said that it was important for the figure of 26 complaints about the GP service to be considered in context; there are currently more than one hundred GP practices in the area, so 26 is a very low number.
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