§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether there has been any change in the number of cases of complaints made to the health ombudsman which he had to reject because they involved clinical judgment since the introduction of the new procedure for investigating such complaints in September 1981.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe clinical complaints procedure was not in operation for the whole of the period covered by the most recent annual report of the Health Service Commissioner. This report shows that in the year ending 31 March 1982, the commissioner had to reject 145 complaints on the grounds that they involved clinical judgment. This represented 22.5 per cent. of the complaints he had received, which is a similar proportion to that experienced in previous years.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has received any representations about the new procedure for investigating complaints concerning clinical judgments; from whom they were received; and what they said.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeBefore the procedure was put into effect we received representations from the Patients' Association, the Association of Community Health Councils, nine individual community health councils and a consultant, criticising it for lack of impartiality. We have since received only one representation, from an hon. Member, about a failure to complete an independent review on a case involving one of his constituents, but that review has now been completed.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what steps he is taking to monitor and evaluate the working of the new procedure for investigating complaints involving clinical judgment; and what publicity he intends to give to his findings;
(2) how many complaints involving clinical judgment have been made to hospital authorities since the introduction of new procedures in September 1981; how many completed complaints have been through each of the three stages of the procedure; how many are waiting to go through the various stages; in how many of the resolved cases the complaint was judged to be justified; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe new procedure is being monitored closely, and a report on its operation up to 31 December 1982 will be published shortly. I will send the right hon. Member a copy of the report and place copies in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many (a) oral and (b) written complaints were made to hospital authorities in the last three years for which figures are available; what proportion involved clinical judgment; and if he will categorise how the complaints were investigated.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeInformation on oral complaints is not available. The information requested in relation to written complaints is as follows:
75W
Written complaints about hospital and community health services received by health authorities (England) Year ending 31 December 1977 1978 981 (i) Total 16,857 16,509 16,274 (ii) Wholly or partly about clinical judgment 7,103 6,869 6,603 Percentage (42.1) (41.6) (40.6) (iii) Method of investigation (a) by officers only 16,625 16,359 16,182 (b) referred to members: further investigation unnecessary 198 83 39 (c) investigation by members 12 18 21 (d) formal independent inquiry 2 3 8 (e) undecided 20 46 11 (f) independent review of clinical judgment — — 13 1. Provisional figures.
2. This information was not collected in 1979 and 1980.