In March 2015, the Patients Association published a damning report titled: PHSO – Labyrinth of Bureaucracy.

A follow-up to their 2014 report ‘The Peoples’ Ombudsman – How it Failed Us‘ it collated the experience of over 200 people who had been let down by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Here are the key points;

In response to this public criticism, PHSO stated that ‘…they are changing the way they work and are creating a service charter: a set of promises so the public knows what they can expect.’

PHSO are always changing the way they work, and the promised service charter has now been scrapped due to its failure to demonstrate improvement. Perhaps there wasn’t any improvement?

According to Rob Behrens, the previous Ombudsman, PHSO became an ‘exemplary’ service under his watch and he was awarded a knighthood for his success. However, recent Trustpilot reviews for PHSO continue to record the same type of complaints identified in the 2015 report. Here is a recent selection:

As a government-controlled quango, the PHSO is supporting NHS negligent deaths despite calls for reform and intelligent scrutiny for many years. It has an antiquated tick box system that has never been scrutinized for appropriate purpose while still holding it up as an ‘exemplar’ system. Traumatised complainants are mentally assaulted and punished just for bringing complaints to PHSO’s notice. Workers there, from the lowest customer services to top management, appear to be fixated on promoting themselves and their ‘mission’, whilst working with defendants’ lies. There’s not a scrap of understanding of complainant trauma, and they appear to relish causing further distress on top of that inflicted by (e.g.) NHS deceit, maladministration, and injuries caused. I asked them to investigate the mental harm, ostracization, and subsequent death of my son. After years of appeals, PHSO’s obstructive dismissals and my personal fact-finding, all to no avail, the PHSO chief’s parting comments were that to investigate specific PHSO actions and harmful slanders by BSMHFT were “beyond my expectations” for them to investigate. Neither my NHS case nor PHSO complaints of serious mental harm to me were ever resolved. I was left to survive on permanent NHS medication, having to seek private counseling for traumatic PHSO malfeasance, gaslighting, predisposition and bias, and blatant collusion with the amply-resourced defendants like BSMHFT.

Date of experience: January 23, 2025

One star because I can’t leave zero stars or a minus which would be more appropriate. My Dad was a dialysis patient in St Helier who failed to provide my Dad with 3.5 hours dialysis three times a week, leaving my Dad distraught and vulnerable, having been diagnosed with sepsis. His potassium shot up to over 6 and he died. I provided the PHSO with plenty of evidence about everything that my Dad went through, including his post mortem report. All of which was emotionally devastating to experience and relive to tell it all to the PHSO. Despite all the negative reviews about the PHSO, I felt confident, given all the evidence I provided, that my complaint would be upheld. However, it wasn’t. The outcome recognised that my Dad had less dialysis than he needed but they said it had no consequences. Now I’m not clinical but even I know that increasing urea, creatinine and potassium are killers for a dialysis patient. All of this was shown on the blood tests my Dad had in hospital. Even more devasting, was at the end of the PHSO outcome, it was noted that I was one of at least three people who had complained about the same thing at that very same hospital, St Helier. But still the PHSO did not uphold mine or the other complaints. So I would suggest an online petition being made about the scope and purpose of the PHSO and lobby your MP with your experiences. Be mindful of the trauma of not being heard or believed when we all know we have experienced crap care at the hands of so called professionals. If you are, like me, bereaved then keep your heart full of the love the one who passed will always have for you and no one can take that away from you.

Date of experience: November 30, 2024

I am a NHS professional and complained to the ombudsman about the care a close friend received from his GP which was a possible life or death situation. I echo everyone else’s comments – a utterly useless organisation that has lost its moral compass if it ever had one. Patronising, ignorant, and dismissive. My advice sad to say would be to not even bother and if you feel you have a strong case, use litigation instead.

Date of experience: February 01, 2025

I’d give minus 5 if I could. Don’t expect an independent investigation from these inexperienced people. They will always find in the other person’s favour. They conducted an investigation after a close family member nearly died because a GP misdiagnosed him and the PHSO found the doctor did nothing wrong when there were obvious signs of mistakes. Then when I asked the person dealing with my case why she had forgotten to address many things, she said because it wasn’t part of the original scope even though I had told her 3 times in the first place. In the end they didn’t listen to a word I said. Surely an independent investigation should take into account all viewpoints not just the person who committed the crime.

Date of experience: July 12, 2024

The only conclusion one can draw from a decade of inaction is that the government rather likes the status quo.

* All 3 Patients Association reports, now removed from the Patients Association website, can be seen here