At the beginning of November Sarah visited the Complaints Department for Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust. This is a dedicated team of people who handle complaints from patients and relatives from the initial concern being raised to any remedial action needed to be taken. Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust is a very large busy acute hospital trust treating over 100,000 patients a year. The Trust has received a "good" rating from the Healthcare Commission for quality of care but there will always be times when patients and relatives think things have not been handled properly.

Sarah said "I was very impressed with the professionalism of the Complaints Team, particularly with some of the very complex cases they have to deal with. I was particularly pleased to note that in the last report to the Trust Board, while there were just over 200 complaints registered there were also nearly 1700 plaudits received from patients who were pleased with their care. At a time when the media only seem to report bad news, this was a credit to all the staff in the Trust."