Complaints, regulation and enquries

The NHS is a very large and complex organisation. It would be surprising if things did not go wrong from time to time. This page is concerned both with procedures for discovering what may have gone wrong and what to do about it, but also with reports about major problems in the past. Many recent scandals seem to be centred around care at the end of life - obviously a difficult time, and one most of us do not talk about as much as we should
Legal Duty of Candour - 'Robbie's Law'
The future regulation of health and adult social care in England - response to consultation
- Abolish the GMC blog
- AEGIS (Aid to the Elderly in Government Institutions) - description of archive material about this important but long closed campaign
- Action against Medical Accidents
- Campaign for Health Service Democracy (site preserved 2008)
- Can the NHS do more to catch local ‘failures’?
- Care Quality Commission
- Carers Federation ICAS
- Citizens Advice
- Clifford Ayling enquiry - Ayling's supporters
- Clinical Disputes Forum
- Clinical Governance and the Bristol Royal Infirmary Enquiry SHA Conference
- Complaints at Guy's
- Complaints and litigation - AVMA
- Complaints policy - includes the legislation (Dept of Health)
- Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence
- Cure the NHS (Stafford)
- Dealing with complaints constructively seminar London Friday 9th November 2007
- Evans Report - Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals April 2001
- Expert Witness Institute
- Findings and Recommendations Following Enquiries into Allegations Concerning the Care of Elderly Patients in Certain Hospitals 1968
- The future of professional regulation Tom Smith 2006
- General Medical Council
- Guidance on Complaints Policy
- Health Professions Council
- Health Service Ombudsman
- Healthcare Commission Investigation into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Daily Telegraph report of goings on at the Patient Forum
- The Healthcare Commission's role in handling complaints 2007
- Human error: models and management James Reason BMJ 2000
- Impatient for Change campaign - Which
- Independent Complaints Advocacy Services (Department of Health)
- Justice In Health Network
- Kerr/Haslam Inquiry
- Krista Ocloo campaign
- Learning from Bristol: the report of the public inquiry into children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary Steven Bolsin. Joan Higgins on the significance of the inquiry
- Learning From Mistakes SHA Conference Monday 30th April 2007
- Making a complaint about the NHS - Citizens Advice briefing
- Making experiences count: the proposed new arrangements for handling health and social care complaints - response to consultation Feb 2008
- Margaret Haywood -struck off for filming patients being neglected
- Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
- Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Independent Inquiry
- National Association for Mental Health - this is a chapter from a book primarily about Scientology, but contains some interesting material about the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Allegations of Ill-treatment of Patients and other Irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff (1969)
- NHS Change
- NHS Exposed - a campaign for individual rights. Unashamedly unbalanced
- NHS must do more to act on and learn from complaints by patient, says healthcare watchdog
- NHS Redress: Statement of policy 2005
- NHS Redress Act 2006
- NHS Sucks
- National Health Service (Complaints) Regulations 2004
- National Patient Safety Agency
- NHS Patient Survey Programme
- NPSA’s role in complaints 2007
- Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Patient Opinion
- POhWER ICAS
- Principles of Good Complaint Handling consultation
- The Production and Reproduction of Scandals in Chronic Sector Hospitals 1981
- Public Concern at Work
- Public Inquiries
- Putting People into Public Services (NCC)
- Reforming the NHS complaints procedure - Consultation
- Regulating Healthcare Professionals - SHA Conference October 2006
- Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Allegations of Ill - Treatment of Patients and other irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. 1969
- Richard Neale - Committee of inquiry
- Robbie Powell's case - falsification of medical records
- Rodney Ledward
- The Role of the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service 2007
- Royal Liverpool Children's Inquiry
- A Safer Place for Patients, National Audit Office, 2005
- Scandal, social policy and social welfare By Ian Butler, Mark Drakeford, Jo Campling
- Shipman Enquiry
- Social services complaints procedure
- South of England Advocacy Projects
- Sufferers of Iatrogenic Neglect
- The use and impact of inquiries in the NHS Higgins and Walshe BMJ 2002
- Thomas Milner's Palliative Care Experience
- Towards an explanation of the corruption of care 1993
- Victoria Climbie
- What's it all for? Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in regulation 2009
- When Citizens Complain Report of the Public Administration Committee 2008
- Whistleblowing in the NHS - Westminster Hall debate 2009
- Whistleblow nurses 'victimised' October 2009
You might also want to look at our pages on doctors, health law, discrimination and equality, rationing and on NHS performance.

