Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Reviews 

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 ended up hospital and nearly died because a GP misdiagnosed him and the PHSO found the doctor did nothing wrong when there were obvious signs of mistakes. The case worker cherrypicked information and ignored what I said. For example the GP made a serious medication error when he forgot to prescribe vital medication. When the caseworker wrote the final report, this was omitted. Then afterwards I asked the caseworker why she had not commented on the medication error she said it wasn't part of the orginal scope. Looking back through the caseworkers own notes it WAS part of the scope. However, when the scope was released internally she added the medication error to the 'background' section and so therefore was not considered. Then when I asked why this was left out they blamed me by saying "well we did email you and you said you were happy to go ahead with the scope". So therefore it was my fault for not noticing THEIR mistake. However, looking back through that email, it didn't contain the 'background' section at all so there was no way I could have known the medication error would be added here. Furthermore, she repeatedly said the email was only brief summary and my assumption was the full scope would contain the medication error but didn't. Finally, when the finally investigation was released online and a letter sent to me, it did contain the 'background' section this time but made no mention of the medication error whatsoever. This is either a serious administration mistake or a deliberate attempt to cover up information. Either way the PHSO is not fit for purpose.

I took park in some “paid” user testing research for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. After the session they took my bank account information and assured me I would receive payment within 30 days (which is excessive in the first place). It has now been more than 6 weeks, I have chased them 3 times and still received nothing.
Looking at other people’s reviews on here, it seems they couldn’t care less about their users

They might as well close as they don’t help at all!
I have issue with my 16yr old daughters dentist she’s on the waiting list to remove 4teeth she’s is in pain and they said there’s nothing they can do as she’s under nhs treatment i have to wait till is her turn or do it private, I can’t afford to pay £800 to do it, I rung them to ask for advice and all they said is nothing I can do just have to wait while she keeps getting pain on and off!

Another beyond a bad joke of a tax payer fund service pretending to be impartial when they're not. I called up about a serious problem with my GP Practice, which I've been apart of since its inception, and prior to it, having lived in the same town my whole life. When I complained that the Practice hadn't relied to my formal email of complaint, the uninterested jobsworth at the other end of the line told me that there's nothing that the PHSO could do until I received a reply back to my complaint. Well, that's just great, isn't it? All your GP Practice has to do is simply ignore a patients complaint indefinitely and nothing will come of it. Bravo, well done. Another win for the powers that be.

Shockingly bad.
These people wasted my time for 2 years, creating work, asking questions, clarifications, only to conclude that I had not complained properly as I didn't understand the quagmire of NHS acronyms. Completely useless. They should be shut down.

Not fit for purpose, like all the services in the uk, patronising. I was polite started saying I was speaking over him, to the contrary couldn't address any of my valid points, I don't think they like it when we have an opinion that favours our own interests, I hung up, don't waste your time, it’s frustrating enough to have to resort to using these services and when they aren’t helpful why bother.

Do not waste your time. Everyone should stop using this organisation to have it shut down

Bought off

They kept me waiting for months and months with my mother evidently on too low a dosage of Olanzapine and who is likely to get brain damage because of it and despite having provided evidence that the 'doctor' of the OPMH who was (mis)treating my mother had made his decisions prior to even viewing her and other incontrovertible proof of patient-abuse closed the case with the excuse made that my desired outcomes did not match with what they could achieve, and this was a load of nonsense as we had already had hour-and-a-half long conversations where such details had been made clear.

They were paid off. This is typical ombudsman behaviour. Communist, basically.

To be clear, there is no real appeals service in the face of patient-abuse in Devon and I would imagine that this is the same across the country.

Murderers allowed to get away with their crimes. Each person who does not assist as they should is complicit.

The PHSO told me they will only investigate cases that result in permanent injury or death. ( Jan 25)
One case was my discharge with a blocked kidney when a doctor did not look at a scan.
The second case was when my late wife was prescribed drugs on two occasions to which she was allergic , because of the NHS's incompatability of computer systems. This was admitted by the hospital, but nothing has changed.

The person I spoke to at the Ombudsman made a statement during our conversation, they then when reviewing my complaint attributed their comment to me. The company I was complaining about apologised to the Ombudsman service. I have never received an apology from the company the nearest I got to an apology was them implying I was a liar.

The response the Ombudsman gave to my complaint was as the company had admitted its errors, promised to do better in the future and apologized to them, the Ombudsman. I should be satisfied with a second hand apology.

My request of the Ombudsman service was a second Serious Investigation following my daughters death, as the company first investigation was totally inadequate as they didn't comply with the Serious Incident Framework in respect of the family involvement and the investigation itself. A fact admitted to the PHSO service.
Fortunately for me I didn't rely sollyy on the Ombudsman Service. I also took my complaint to another organisation who are now commissioning a second Serious Incident. Hopefully this investigation will comply with the Serious Incident Framework and will find out why my daughter died.

Very disappointed that I spent ages filling in the phso official form after my doctors failed to get me the treatment I needed quickly enough and this impacted my health and hearing. I went into great detail of how I was let down and what happened. I waited ages for a response then they got all the information wrong,clearly not even reading the official form I filled in. I responded and put in complaint but heard nothing. Waste of time and services if they ignore what's written no wonder surgery's are getting away with poor service.
I gave in and chased via phone ,and was told it has gone to her line manager,I get an email today where she gets my name wrong and said she misunderstood my complaint. Sorry but far from a professional service I had 7 emergency appointments dye to my Dr not referring me quick enough all details on my form, a specialist annoyed that I hadn't been referred sooner also in with my form, how can you misunderstand and say that I am still waiting for appointment? Far from impressed

Minus one star. (Below was what happened before.)
In December 2024 I tried again with another bad case because of the same surgery. This time, the initial case worker wouldn't pass it on again, and pretended he couldn't open a document which I sent. Yes, he could; it wasn't true, but in any case, I copied most of the document's content into the formal complaint. My goodness, they are no use to us.
***
One star is just for the polite initial case worker. However, she didn't send my formal complaint on for a proper review but just waited a week after her first call then closed the case. Issues were deliberately misunderstood and an "outcome" rewrote the history of my case. The surgery will be able to go on neglecting patients with the condition that affected me, and write prescriptions without checking the med's suit the patient. I showed the PHSO written comment from the Chief Superintendent Pharmacist - and they still argued! I asked for a review. Too quickly, back came a supposed review, only the same, just as neglectful. Insultingly, the money I was forced to find in order to get private care is thought to be negligible.

PHSO shambles is an illustion, an independent body to pretend there is regulation and holding public services to acount. However, gaving looked at the documentation zero percent of cases are ever upheld. ZERO.
Here is what you can do:

1. Request an Internal Review:
You can ask the PHSO to review their decision or the way your complaint was handled. This involves a senior member of their staff or an independent reviewer looking at your case.

2. Judicial Review:
If you believe the PHSO has acted unlawfully, irrationally, or failed to follow proper procedures, you can challenge their decision through a judicial review in court. This is a legal process, so you will likely need legal advice.

3. Contact Your MP:
Since the PHSO handles complaints referred by Members of Parliament (MPs), you can raise concerns about the PHSO’s conduct with your MP. Your MP may be able to escalate your concerns within the parliamentary system.

4. Contact the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC):
This parliamentary committee oversees the PHSO’s work. You can write to them to express concerns about systemic issues or the service provided by the PHSO. They do not handle individual complaints but may investigate patterns of concern.
5. Escalate to Relevant Advocacy Groups:
Organizations like the Ombudsman Association or advocacy groups for public services might provide advice or support if you feel the PHSO has not met professional standards.

We must be the change we wish to see in the world, and start holding these public services to account.

The Phso, have repeatedly refused to provide access to a visually impared disabled service users for over eight years, each time she has requested the phso, to record her recognised reasonable adjustments, provide updates, complaint references, complaint responses and comply with subject access requests reasonable adjustments every year from 2018.

The Phso, restrict her access and allege she has been vexatious during calls.

When they are then provided with copies of the calls and requested to specifically point out the alleged behaviour they are referring too.

Again as expected no response and continued denial of the abuse from their staff recorded during calls.
I would like to add, I have found Trust pilot, to be biased in favour of the ombudsman's and failure to post a factual record of all the negative reviews against them and I will be contacting your data protection dept again, due to "You" Trustpilot, failing to respond to gross misconduct and information requests over six years.

A waste of time.
It has taken two years to handle my complaint. The final response was full of inaccurate details and a complete white wash.

PHSO is not fit for purpose.
Went through the complaints process and after receiving a final response from them, contacted a senior manager. The final response completely ignored the evidence I had provided. The senior manager agreed that this was the case and apparently spoke to the person involved. Despite this the senior manager explained the decision was final ( despite being completely untrue ) . The process had ended and the only option available to me was legal action .
The whole point of this process is to avoid legal action .

I have to agree with all the other disillusioned contributors on here. There is very little to commend this organisation for, apart from whitewashing health negligence.
We, the people, voted for change.
Well, you will wait until hell freezes over for this lot to change. They don't listen and
don't want to know about genuine, reasoned complaints; they just want to prevaricate and frustrate, hoping you'll go away.
I suggest they look up the meaning of the word 'impartial' in the office dictionary!
What a flagrant waste of taxpayer's money.
Demoralising and encapsulates everything you need to know about Broken Britain.
If I could give no stars, that would be excessively generous.
Don't waste your time with these yes-men.

Everything went wrong this time. Having sent my complaints about London GIC by E-Mail to the PHSO as recommended, I rang them the following week on the 4/4/24 to check whether they had received it. They hadn't and it wasn't even on their system. The lady I spoke to was not very nice (even though the lady in a previous phone call was lovely) and kept on 'talking over me' even when I asked her twice to stop. Seeing that I was getting nowhere, I hung up on her as I was very annoyed. The reviews of the PHSO on Trustpilot are spot on. As a result of the shocking behaviour of this woman and seeing the reviews, I withdrew my complaints and solved my problem a different way. Unless they 'clean up their act', the PHSO is not fit for purpose. I can only conclude that my complaints about London GIC were not serious enough to warrant investigation, but I would never use the service again. I would advise people to avoid it completely.

AVOID AVOID unless you like wasting time. PHSO will do everything in their power to avoid helping you. Go to your local MP instead. As per the other reviews, my caseworker disappeared on holiday for 3 weeks with no prior notification or cover in place. I also call for this 'organisation' to be disbanded because how can we have faith in the NHS when the PHSO is useless??

This ombudsman is not fit for purpose and should be disbanded. I couldn't imagine working for such a useless organisation, what a pointless existence. My caseworker took two years to do absolutely nothing and then use COVID as an excuse. They could have done that in the first place instead of asking me to repeatedly send information I'd sent which caused me even more distress. What is absolutely clear throughout and even in their final letter was that they hadn't bothered reading what I'd sent. He couldn't even spell my (famous) MP's name correctly. Don't waste your time using them , it will just cause you further anguish and stress. There are nothing but horrendous reviews and why would there not be with an organisation that has such little regard for people's lives.