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10 March 2025

National Ombudsman commends Trust on ‘impressive’ work

The national Ombudsman for health has visited staff at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to see first-hand its good practice in complaints handling.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) Rebecca Hilsenrath KC

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) Rebecca Hilsenrath KC and her team visited The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) last week to learn more about the complaints process and how the Trust learns from them to make positive changes.

The Ombudsman looks into complaints about the NHS in England and services provided by the UK Government and its agencies.

Last year, the Trust won the Patient Experience Network’s Making Complaints Count award for work around learning from complaints about end-of-life care.

The Ombudsman also visited Maternity Services to see how staff work on the frontline.

Alison Dowling, Associate Director of Patient Relations at RWT, said: “We all found the day very supportive and relaxed. The team were great to speak to and we had some important discussions.

Rebecca Hilsenrath KC with RWT team

“It was fantastic to showcase the brilliant work our teams do.

“We have always had a good relationship with the Ombudsman as they understand the challenges we face so it was great to meet face-to-face.”

Alison supported a formal complaints project, led by Dr Wendy Walker, Reader in Nursing (End-of life care and bereavement) at RWT and the RWT Patient Experience Team. The project involved the development and use of a tool to analyse bereaved familes’ concerns in letters of formal complaint. The tool, which is routinely used at New Cross Hospital has helped to identify common family concerns at the end of life and informed service improvements in care.

Rebecca Hilsenrath KC said: “The team were very welcoming and open, and we really appreciated the time they put at our disposal.

“It was impressive to hear about the tool they have developed to support learning from complaints about end-of-life care.  We valued the time spent with staff in the Maternity department and the discussions which centred both on the context of local community challenges in Wolverhampton and also on the need for a learning culture in the NHS.”