Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Independent scrutiny of government departments and holding them to account when things go wrong is one of the hallmarks of an open and transparent society.
An Ombudsman, wherever they operate in the world, is there to do exactly that. We identify mistakes through impartial investigation and seek justice for those affected.
As the national Ombudsman, I’m here to help people who have suffered an injustice due to the actions of the Government or the NHS.
Putting things right for people
Mistakes by government departments and the NHS can lead to unresolved injustice, and have life-changing, and sometimes life-ending, consequences.
When that happens, it’s important that those mistakes are acknowledged, if possible made right for that person, and action taken to prevent it from ever happening again.
The types of injustice we look into are wide-ranging. For example, in recent years we have investigated cases including:
- a woman who reported a sexual assault overseas and was told by the Foreign Office to ‘carry on with your holiday and enjoy it’
- a seriously ill woman who had her benefits payments cut severely by around £80 a week due to a Government blunder, leaving her unable to heat her home and buy food – the same error affected over 118,000 people with disabilities and health conditions
- a Windrush generation man who was wrongfully threatened with removal from the UK, and another man who was wrongly classed as having no UK status
- HS2’s failure to communicate properly with a member of the public over the sale of their family home to make way for the line, and its repeated mismanagement of the case
- the death of a baby at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust following a catalogue of errors in the care provided and in the Trust’s complaint handling.
At the heart of all these cases is someone who has been let down by failures in care or service.
As an impartial body, we investigate independently and thoroughly to put things right for the people affected. We also work with the organisations involved to put measures in place to try to stop these failures from happening again.
Our recommendations can include apologies, financial remedy for complainants and action plans for organisations.
Identifying systemic failures
Alongside individual cases, when we identify repeated failings or recurring patterns of mistakes, we can and do publish a report on the issue.
We lay these reports before Parliament and send them to relevant ministers and MPs. When there’s a need for widespread change, we work with relevant Parliamentary Select Committees to drive that forward.
In July 2021, we published and laid before Parliament our report on ‘Unlocking Solutions in Imaging’. It highlighted recurrent serious failings in how X-rays and scans are reported and followed up across NHS services.
Since then, it has gained support at the most senior levels in the NHS, who have established a specific team to implement each recommendation made in the report.
Improving services for the future
Righting wrongs, providing access to justice that has been denied, and improving services for the future is at the core of what an Ombudsman offers.
Ultimately, when things go wrong, we want people to feel that their concerns are taken seriously and addressed, and that lessons are learned.
That requires a culture of embracing complaints. Rather than a culture of blame or fear, we want to see Government departments and the health service welcoming complaints as a source of learning.
By doing that, we can make it easier for people to make complaints and make sure their concerns will be treated properly and resolved quickly. To make this possible, we’ve developed the NHS Complaints Standards and UK Central Government Complaint Standards that will simplify and speed up complaints handling by public services.
As a body that stands outside the NHS, the Government, and its agencies, the national Ombudsman is impartial. We’re here to investigate complaints without taking sides.
There are some rules around how and when a complaint can be made to us. If you feel you have suffered an injustice and want to know if it’s something we can help with, use our complaint checker.
