HEALTHCARE COMMISSION

Spotlight on complaints 2009: a report on second-stage complaints about the NHS in England (16th February 2009)

This Healthcare Commission report says that some NHS trusts are still not responding to complaints effectively or learning lessons from them. The commission has made 12 key recommendations to all NHS trusts to improve the way they resolve complaints in the new two-tier complaints handling system which will replace the current three-tier procedure from 1st April 2009.
Report

Actions speak louder (12th February 2009)

The Healthcare Commission and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMI Probation) published this report looking at healthcare services delivered by local Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in the community and when young people move into and out of custody. Findings from the report include:

• Health assessments of young offenders or those likely to offend, frequently did not contain all relevant health information and young people often did not receive the healthcare they needed.
• The health needs of a young person can affect how they are sentenced.
• 70% of young people in custody with substance misuse problems had appropriate planned support, suggesting that 30% did not.
• Of the YOTs inspected, only two did not meet the statutory requirement of having a PCT health representative on local YOT management boards, however 16% of health representatives did not always attend board meetings and 12% did not contribute sufficiently.
• Ten per cent of the YOTs inspected did not provide sufficient and appropriate healthcare to young people following release from custody
• Primary care trusts did not provide adequate resources in almost half of the YOTs inspected.

Report

Commissioning healthcare in prisons (12th February 2009)
The results of joint work between the Healthcare Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in 2007/08 - This report gives the findings from the inspections of prisons during 2007/08 relating to the delivery of healthcare and the management of substance misuse. It gives recommendations for primary care trusts on how to improve services.
Report