The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is calling for people to speak up about their experiences of care as part of its new Declare Your Care campaign.
New research shows that almost 7 million people in England who have accessed health or social care services, in the last five years have had concerns about their care, but never raised them. Of these, over half (58%) expressed regret about not doing so.
The most common reasons for not raising a concern were not knowing how (20%) or who (33%) to raise it with, not wanting to be seen as a ‘troublemaker’ (33%) and worries about not being taken seriously (28%). Over a third of people (37%) felt that nothing would change as a result.
However, when people did raise a concern or complaint, the majority (66%) found their issue was resolved quickly, it helped the service to improve and they were happy with the outcome.
The research is being published by CQC to mark the launch of their ‘Declare Your Care’ campaign. The campaign is encouraging people to share their experiences of care with CQC to support its work to improve standards of care in England.
The majority of people who did raise a concern or complaint were motivated by a desire to make sure that care improved for others. This included wanting to improve the care they, or a loved one, had received (61%) and improve care for everyone using the service (55%) with a smaller number also hoping for an apology or explanation (26%).
The main reasons given for raising, or wanting to raise a concern, were delays to a service or appointment, lack of information and poor patient care. Additionally, over a fifth indicated that they have raised or wanted to raise concerns about the lack of communication between health and care services.
Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said;
“Our annual State of Care report shows that most people are getting good care, a real testament to the hard work of the many people working across Health and Social Care in this country.
“We know that when people raise a concern they have a genuine desire to improve the service for themselves and others. We also know that the majority of services really appreciate this feedback and make positive changes, as this new research shows.
“Hearing from people about their experiences of care is an important part of our inspection work and contributes to driving improvements in standards of care. Everyone can play a part in improving care by directly giving feedback to services, or by sharing information and experiences with us so that we can take action when we find poor care. Sharing your experience also enables us to highlight the many great examples of care we see.”
Minister of State for Care, Caroline Dinenage said;
“We want the NHS and social care system to provide the safest, most compassionate care in the world. This means encouraging patients to speak up with concerns, ensuring we act on them and learning from what happened so we can do better in future.
“That’s why I encourage anyone who has concerns over their care, or the care of loved ones, to share their experiences with the Care Quality Commission – so they can continue their vital work of protecting patients and improving the excellent care we see across the health service.”
VODG Chief Executive, Rhidian Hughes is backing the Declare Your Care campaign. He said;
‘A listening ear and effective complaints systems are the cornerstone to good quality health and social care services. People should feel free to give feedback and share concerns knowing that organisations will both listen and respond. VODG is right behind CQC’s Declare Your Care campaign and will work with the regulator, our members and across the sector to improve people’s access to, and quality of, feedback and complaints systems.’
Imelda Redmond, National Director of Healthwatch England also commented on the launch of the campaign, saying;
‘Healthwatch has consistently heard over many years that the number one reason people offer feedback about poor care is to try and make things better for others.
‘So when services fail to make it easy for people to speak up, either informally or formally, then they miss out on a vital opportunity to learn and improve.
‘We also know that the best way to encourage people to come forward is to highlight the difference feedback makes to the way services are run. It may only be something seemingly small, like a change to the menu in a care home canteen, but to the people being cared for it is important to see their views resulting in change.
‘Setting a positive culture around feedback is a vital part of ensuring that when more serious incidents arise, these too are put right and learnt from.’
You can share your experience of care, on behalf of yourself or a family member, at www.cqc.org.uk/sye
Source: CQC Information
Dated: 19th February 2019
