My Story

When Mrs X’s daughter came to me in my office I initially asked her if I could take notes. I read back these notes to her at the end to clarify that the information I had taken was representative of her concerns.
I then advised her of the complaints procedure and gave a her a detailed flow chart of the time frames she should refer to when expecting a response to her complaint.
I then sent a holding letter to her identifying the complaint had been logged formally and was being investigated.
I then devised a chart with several headings:
Incident of concern; details; expected outcome; response
This enabled me to structure my feedback and also itemise the different areas of the complaint. The expected outcome had details regarding the wishes of Mrs X’s daughter as to what she would like to be done about the issue. The response provided details of the outcome of my investigation and also exactly what had been done as a consequence of my findings. For example, some staff received disciplinary action, some were asked to re-do certain elements of their training. There was also a partnership working element which meant I needed to speak to the ambulance service and the ward staff at the hospital about miscommunication and concerns about the way the situation was handled.
I asked the complainant if she would like to receive the response in this grided format or would she prefer it in the corporate format of a letter. She stated she appreciated the format I had written the complaint in as it helped her to see exactly how each concern was investigated and dealt with.