South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

receives regular reports detailing complaints received including how they have been handled. Our complaints policy and procedure has adopted the principles as outlined in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s principles of good complaints handling, principles of good administration and principles of remedy. We work closely with local health service providers, monitoring the standard of complaints handling, ensuring all complainants are informed of their statutory rights under the NHS Constitution. This includes being given the information about the NHS complaints service provided by a local advocacy team and the option to take their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman if they are not satisfied with the way the complaint has been dealt with. The complaints we receive and manage are about the services we commission locally, whilst complaints about GP services are handled by NHS England. We use the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s six principles of remedy to address concerns and complaints: • Getting it right • Being customer focused • Being open and accountable • Acting fairly and proportionately • Putting things right • Seeking continuous improvement Last year, between 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, we received 232 formal complaints. Of these, 130 related to issues for which CCG is responsible for investigating and responding to. We also received 102 complaints relating to issues which we are not directly responsible for, which were forwarded to the appropriate organisation for investigation and reply. These included complaints for NHS provider Trusts, GPs, dentists and community pharmacies. Of the complaints we received in 2020/21, two have been referred to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. For those complaints that were within the CCG's remit, the most commonly complained about areas were: Continuing healthcare (assessment for eligibility process, payment) 41 complaints Mental health commissioning (access to services, availability and funding) 12 complaints General commissioning 8 complaints Covid-19 (Shielding status, availability of vaccine) 8 complaints Assisted conception (eligibility criteria) 5 complaints We very much value the views of patients and other people who experience the services we commission. We consider any complaint or enquiry about these services as a vital part of reviewing and, where necessary, improving them. 100 | NHS South West London Clinical Commissioning Group