Goal 1 Better Health Outcomes Outcome 1.1 We design and deliver services meet the needs of our local community. Evidence Overview of evidence Overall our evidence base covers every protected characteristic. The Equality Data Reports (Patient Section for 2011, 2012 and 2013, taken together) cover all characteristics, apart from marriage/civil partnership and transgender, which have been covered in our consultation work. Our generalist consultative bodies (the Diversity Leads Forum, the Patient and Carers Experience Group, the Experience and Engagement Committee) cover all protected characteristics, through either personal membership or representation. Terms of Reference are available on request to show the work of these groups. Overview of data evidence We have reviewed complaints, looking for equality themes, as well as the protected characteristic of the complainant (covering age, gender, disability, race and religion) and conducted our CQAT survey, with results differentiated by age, gender, disability and race. We also review the Patient Opinion website, to see if any of the feedback there raises equality issues. Our Friends and Family data is also differentiated by age, race and disability status. The only notable equality gap Is that ethnic minority patients give us a lower net promoter score in the Friends and Family data. Particular priorities Elderly patients and those with dementia Improving the service for elderly patients, but, in particular, people with dementia, has been a major priority. In May 2012 we conducted a Members Say event where we engaged our membership in considering priorities as regards place of care and allocation of financial resources in care of the elderly. This work is being used to inform our redesign of the patient pathway for older patients. The "Hospital at Home" project was designed in consultation with service users and other health partners, to prevent admission and reduce length of stay for elderly patients, so that they can have more treatment at home, if this is what they wish. It is recognised that hospital treatment can be distressing and confusing for elderly people, so this will contribute to reducing health inequalities for our older patients.
The national standard for efficiency is that complaints should be dealt with within six months, a standard with which we comply. In our year one assessment, we believed that we were not consistently meeting our own internal standards for the speed with which complaints are handled and that there is scope for improvement as regards the overall efficiency of our complaints process. We therefore held a improvement event, on complaints, during winter 2011, which we used to review our complaints policy and to embed appropriate standards and expectations at each stage of the process. As a result: we have improved the efficiency of complaints handling greatly in the past year, with the number of complaints pending having dropped from 309 to 88 we have not yet secured full implementation of the new complaints policy, as directorates require further training and support in sustaining appropriate dialogue with complainants, will be complete by March 2013 we are planning a higher profile presence and branding for PALS, with more staff resource allocated there, for de-escalation of potential complaints. The extent to which our responses are "respectful" is hard to measure. We have, however, surveyed our complaints and randomly selected those which refer to issues arising from patients belonging to particular protected characteristics and looked for evidence indicative of a "respectful" approach. Results are as follows: Complaint 5257 (Age / Dementure) Open admission of failings and actions to address them. Complaint 6292 (Disability) Patient was offered a second opinion, over a disputed decision as regards provision of an aid, even though we felt the initial decision was justified. Complaint 5773 (Gender, Maternity / Pregnancy) Acknowledgement made of difficult context, apology given for shortcomings and explanation of remedial action. Complaint 4958 (Race) As response gives a detailed summary of care and supporting rationale, although the issues were clinical rather than directly racial. Complaint 5445 (Religion) Substance of patient complaint and acknowledged and claim for compensation politely refuted. The issues were clinical, rather than directly Complaint 6357 (LGB) Formal investigation carried out, even though concerns expressed appear prima facie improbable and could have been due to aspects of the patient's illness. Complaint 4914 (Transgender) Routine reassurance given to patient; note made on patient's record giving the gender by which he would like to be known.