Ireland HSE Head of Consumer Affairs, Mary Culliton, said last week that she was delighted with progress to date in rolling out the HSE’s new Comments and Complaints process, ‘Your Service, Your Say’.
Speaking at a national conference on health consumer affairs, and she also gave attendees a flavour of the types of issues that had been raised in its first two months of operation.
“Your Service, Your Say came into operation on January 1st of this year, and I am happy to report that our clients are taking the opportunity to have their say, allowing the HSE as an organisation to put right any wrong, and to learn and develop services as a result”, she said.
The HSE provides thousands of high quality health and personal social services to young and old nationwide. Your Service, Your Say invites all service users to have their say about their experience of the health services, and about how services have been delivered. This in turn allows the HSE to continually improve and develop its services.
Comments and Complaints can be made about any service of the HSE or a Service Provider. A complaint can be made about something that was not done correctly, or something that should have been done but was not. Where services do not operate as well as they should, the HSE is committed to pinpointing the reason why, and setting right any wrong. This Comments and Complaints Service is consistent nationwide, and is supported by hundreds of trained staff who work to respond to all client feedback.
“Comments and complaints that we have received in the first two months of operation are, like our services, incredibly wide ranging, and represent a healthy mix of positive and negative comments. Complaints quite often have related to difficulties in accessing services, like medical card assessment delays, or problems in making contact with local offices. Positive feedback is also regularly received, on a service well delivered, or an individual staff member who has gone the extra mile to assist a client. “
“A key element of the HSE’s work to transform healthcare in Ireland is to improve access to services, and to further increase public confidence in our public health services. Providing service users with a voice, and making that voice heard, is something to which the HSE is absolutely committed.”
How people can have their say
Speak to a member of staff
Post – comment form
Email – yoursay@hse.ie
HSE infoline – 1850 24 1850
Web – www.hse.ie