Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation by Dr Bill Kirkup, published in March 2015, what steps his Department have taken to review the NHS complaints system to (a) strengthen local resolution and improve timeliness, (b) introduce external scrutiny of local resolution and (c) reduce reliance on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to intervene in unresolved complaints.
We are currently developing a national strategy which aims to drive improvements in how feedback and concerns from patients are dealt with by the National Health Service so that the NHS listens, learns and acts.