New public health complaints system

The Health Ministry is moving to minimise the level of patient complaints at public hospitals.



Health Minister Ruddy Spencer has ordered that structured systems be immediately set up at each hospital to better handle these complaints.



According to him, the systems should improve the time taken to process complaints, as well as improve the quality of services offered by the public health sector.



Mr. Spencer’s instruction come two weeks after a woman claimed that the negligence of medical staff at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St. James led to the death of her infant a year ago.



At an emergency meeting of hospital management and senior health ministry personnel yesterday, Mr. Spencer promised to strengthen the Legal Department and the Central Complaint Investigation Unit to better support the needs of the health regions.