Right to Reply: Using Patient Complaints and Testimonials to Improve Performance in the NHS

Within the British National Health Service (NHS), a number of different methods are currently in place which actively encourage patients to judge the provision of health by sharing their experiences of care and treatment, completing surveys, etc. Testimonials are also a way of evaluating the provision of health care and are posted regularly on NHS websites (Patient Opinion, NHS Choices, etc.), but also on special care and charity websites. Providing an outlet for patients to complain can be a useful way of not only ensuring that individual rights to quality health care are respected but also of increasing awareness of safety-related problems within health organisations, or various problems relating to health care delivery. However, such information and other data on user experiences are not currently well aggregated or used to drive improvements in health care delivery. So, while the right to reply and using patients’ experiences and/or complaints might be a way to improve care, this paper underlines a number of difficulties in collating and effectively using such information. It uses a case study of the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital Trust negligent care scandal of the period 2005 to 2008 to illustrate why a patient-led approach to monitoring care provision is essential but difficult to implement in practice.