Putting things right 2018-19: How we dealt with complaints and compliments.

In 2018-19, Public Health Wales investigated 59 formal complaints under our Putting Things Right procedure, a small increase of seven from 52 last year. 

We also encourage our staff to deal with ‘on the spot’ complaints whenever it is appropriate.  During 2018/19 we received 72 ‘on the spot’ complaints which is a small increase compared to 2017/18. 

Gay Reynolds, Governance and General Manager in the Quality, Nursing and Allied Health Professionals division of Public Health Wales said:

“Public Health Wales recognises the value in the effective management of complaints and the subsequent organisational learning that supports the development and improvement of services, functions and programmes.  We therefore welcome opportunities to learn from people’s experiences, good or bad.”

The majority of feedback received by Public Health Wales relates to the parts of the organisation that deal directly with the public. It is important that we capture both compliments and complaints.
In 2018-19 our Screening Division screened 629,000 participants.  The percentage of concerns received by the Screening Division in comparison to the number of individuals screened is approximately 1 per 12,096 screened and represents 0.008% of screening activity.

We also received over 1700 compliments from members of the public and service users from across the organisation demonstrating a 29:1 ratio of compliments to complaints.

The majority of compliments were submitted to thank members of staff at our Screening Division with feedback complimenting the positive attitude and professionalism of our staff, along with positive feedback about the service and the timeliness of results.

Public Health Wales is always striving to improve the services we offer. If you have any feedback on any of our services, good or bad, we encourage you to email: general.enquiries@wales.nhs.uk with your thoughts. 

Report:

Putting Things Right Annual Report 2018-2019