Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Anmeldelser 

Look at all the absolutely terrible reviews here. My experience with the PHSO was precisely the same.

I was initially encouraged by their "front end" staff, who seemed sympathetic and caring on the telephone . My case involved not me, but my teenage daughter, who ended up trying to kill herself on two occasions because no-one at her GP Surgery would listen regarding her mental health problems, so the complaint was about the inaction of her GP. One of the staff I spoke to said she had teenage kids, so she understood exactly how I felt, and that I was "lucky", because the case would now be referred to the "Serious cases" department . Cheekily, I was phoned by some survey company straight afterwards , to ask how my experience with the PHSO was. At this point, it was fine, so I gave them positive feedback.

As soon as it got to the "Serious Cases" department it all went horribly wrong. They didn't bother to read the case notes properly , and kept making factual mistakes regarding what had happened to my daughter, and the actual timeline. They had a completely different attitude to the staff that had initially dealt with case, much more negative and dismissive. Even when I pointed out the factual errors, they refused to change their view, or take those corrections into account. In the end they refused to consider the case at all, because the issue happened to my daughter , and not to me, even through she was only 13 at the time, and she has already signed to give her permission for me to pursue the complaint case. The PHSO seem to just want to get the case off their books, and will make any excuse as to why they can't take it forward . They quote legislation and the rulebook, but when challenged to produce the actual legislation which they say they rely on , they do no do so.

The organisation seems corrupt to me, just as others have said here. Another perfect example of lack of accountability of public services - it only seems to exist to make it look like there is avenue to complain, even if they don't actually do anything .

PHSO - how can I add to what has already been said about this egregious (outstandingly bad) organisation that hasn’t already been said? I complained to PHSO when Lister Hospital, Stevenage swept under the carpet my complaints about being most seriously physically abused in 3 different departments. I was 82 at the time, last year; broken femur. After a lot of toing and froing I asked both Lister and PHSO for copies of the correspondence that had passed between them regarding my case (Freedom of Information Act). It then emerged the PHSO caseworker hadn’t bothered to contact Lister before binning my case. (He actually told me he’d put my name on some sort of list.). Dreadful. As someone else said: no accountability in all such so-called services. The whole area of patient protection needs re-setting.
I don’t want to cause reputational damage to an NHS-related institution - but some senior staff there are working hard to achieve just that. PHSO, it seems, doesn’t have a reputation capable of being degraded.
Apart from this dreadful experience - It’s only fair to say the great majority of staff at Lister do a great job, and I thank them warmly.

Looking at all these 1 star reviews only because you have to give 1 star. I think everybody should contact the BBC watchdog. This is Taxpayers money being wasted on this organisation. Not every single member of the public that has used the PHSO can be wrong. Flawed investigations, ignored evidence they should be held accountable.

When MPs criticise NHS ombudsman for not investigating ‘less serious’ complaints you KNOW PHSO is unfit for purpose!
A tick-box organisation funded by parliament with taxpayers money!
Unless you've died they won't investigate, but an investigation then is too late!
Totally useless and should be disbanded!

i can not believe tax payers money is being spent on this incompetent service.
After a 2 and half yr investigation where a complaint was upheld against a gp, during this 2 and half yrs many independant medical advisers were spoken to to gather the correct informed outcome, the gp was comstantly given time to provide any response. but after the final decision he was allowed to appeal and a single senior case manager with no medical training can suddenly change the outcome of 2 and half yrs of work and describe his colleagues work as flawed this dept should be investigated and diabanded for its incompetence and waste of public funds

Agree that this organisation is a complete waste of time, they seem to be set up to justify their own existence. One Ombudsman investigating another was never likely to end well and so it proved - they reach their own conclusions and then decline to discuss them. They then had the temerity to say that they wanted to feature their 'investigation' on their website until I advised them not to. I asked them what a successful complaint against the Pensions Ombudsman might look like and they advised to look on their website, where there are 4 complaints against the Pensions Ombudsman, none of which have been upheld. Their average review score is currently 1.1 stars, I suspect this would be a lot lower if you could award 0 stars as I would have done given the option.

Before reading,please Google DAILY MAIL GABAPENTIN.

I went to this organisation after 4 years of being ignored & deliberately letting my health deteriorate after stopping a medication called GABAPENTIN prescribed by my then GP from what was East Parade Medical Practice York.

I was put on GABAPENTIN because of 2 back operations that still left pain,also on tramadol an opiate based medication which hightens the euphoria (A PRESCRIPTION HIGH FOR 10 TO 11 YEARS) not one day did this help with the pain.
The euphoria (high) I was on is what was just pushing everything to the back of my mind not having a care about dangers.
When you are on a high you just get on with things even though I had a lot of visits to A+E with accidents & this is just one of the issues.

I have been off this for 5 years & never gone back to my normal self & the continuing affect it is having on me.

This organisation said they would look into the permanent affects after stopping this medication.
Putting me through a lot of anxiety,stress & worst of all the suicidal thoughts which obviously mean nothing to these people.

After a year or so of being left by the ombudsman still dealing with these things myself.
I received there answer telling me there was nothing they were willing to do.

Two days after this having nowhere left to go & nobody in the authorities who I could trust feeling like they were all covering up for what they do not tell you I attempted to end my life at my GPs Jorvik Gillygate Practice York.
MP Rachel Maskel for York said she would help only for her to start avoiding emails.

This incident was all avoidable by the authorities.
Involving the armed response & having a taser pointed at me & being taken down by about five officers,pepper sprayed & being accused of striking an officer in the attack on me.
I had folded the knife I used & placed on the reception for many to see.
No media coverage not even the police incident website & no CCTV from inside the GP surgery reception when all the receptionists are apparently being abused.

Sorry I cut my wrist needing 8 stitches .

The whole situation kept quiet out of the media & then telling me depending how I tell my statement will depend weather I get charged.
I said I can only tell the truth which involves all the authorities of york, MP Rachel Maskel,Nimbus Care,The NHS & The Ombudsman.
At court a 4 month sentence suspended for 12 month.

This is how much the authorities are willing to let happen to someone & all on GABAPENTIN have a possibility of this if you even manage to get yourself of it.

3×400mg,3×a day=3600mg daily GABAPENTIN.

2×50mg,3×a day=300mg daly TRAMADOL.

I am know trying to get copies of body cam footage (which has been edited)off the police .
Also the solicitor who was provided to me (MT WATSON & WOODHOUSE HARROGATE) who together with the police are avoiding giving me on request copies of evidence which I am entitled to .

The final problem is that Pfizer make this medication who fund the MHRA & NHS millions of pounds each year.

The people that pull the trigger get the blame not the manufacturers.

I only hope you people involved can sleep at night knowing that you have caused more suffering to those who have put there trust in you to look after the people's side of things.

I suppose your wages are blood money at the end of the day as as my thoughts are not cured by your denial.

Thanks for stabbing me & all the others in the country you have failed.

Completely useless, inept and waste of tax payers money this organisation. Just another QUANGO organisation which creates jobs for planks and serves no purpose nor benefits the public in any way whatsoever.

Make a complaint with clear-cut 'smoking gun' evidence about another Government organisation and they first reply with "Your complaint is valid for investigation" but ultimately have no.guts or spine to uphold the complaint.

That's all you need to know when thinking about using these planks' "services".

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Anthony McLaughlin

Contacted the Health Ombudsman Service because my wife was removed as NHS patient from a Dental surgery being pregnant and looking after two other children. Absolute waste of time, they have taken hours of our time collecting information and making investigation and after few months provided us with decision with extremely shallow arguments

Don’t bother. Following legal advice I referred my complaint against my doctors surgery to the PHSO. After six months of the PHSO gathering evidence from myself and the surgery, the PHSO said the nature of my complaint did not meet their criteria for pursuing. From the start the PHSO were fully aware of the nature of my complaint so why didn’t they tell me this at the outset so we could have taken our complaint elsewhere? We had six months of stress and worry. The PHSO had already pursued our complaint for six months and they had all the information they needed to make a decision, but they chickened out of criticising the surgery and abruptly said we did not meet their criteria. What a disgrace

Absolutely resistant to investigating the concerns or de-scoping consequences of the issues

Ridiculously long delays before even starting investigation

Highly resistant to acknowledging true impacts

Will email for months and months and months but not actually do anything, complete waste of time and poor services know this so nothing will change. Pointless entity and a gross waste of resources.

I made 5 or more subject access requests to the relevant healthcare organisation, compiled the information and investigated it myself, then sent the relevant documents with anotations and a timeline in PDF clearly proving my claims. Also bear in mind, I have a academic qualification in investigtion. If I was healthy I would be able to enter multiple career paths at entry or slightly higher as an investigator, so dont take that lightly. I did the investigation for them and they still messed it up.

This process has taken nearly three years and in the last 2 months two PSHO case workers quit and were replaced.

Recently I was issued a reaponse which failed to acknowledge half ish of my claims and seemed to suggest the third case worker had not read my evidence.

This letter also stated they could not fullfill my chosen outcomes without an explanation, as well as mistepresented my chosen outcomes.

I was unable to afford a lawyer for this and in addition I canvassed 40ish lawyers looking for legal aid and was refused by all. The ombudsman was the only option.

As of now I have been off sick for seven years and consequently my ability to start a family or have a career is gone. I am going to enter the menopause in the next few years, my CV has a huge gap in it.

Health is everything and when its gone it leaves a void that sucks everything else out your life. Including basic milestones such as starting a family, having a career, healthy social life, travel. You know, all those good things.

So there you go. Even if you investigate and prove your claims for them, there will be no result. Its a waste of time.

It is more rational under these circumstances to accept you will be permanatly ill and try to make the best of it than to try to complain in order to get replacement healthcare. I asked them for the treatements shown on the NHS website advertised as given for my condition among other things. This simple most important thing they could not achieve.

These are just jobworth civil servants..........craven, lazy, disdainful, unaccountable, untrained and above all else wholly unprofessional and amateurish . Their attitude reflects the wider attitude of the British state to its citizens who are of course no proper citizens at all, just Commoners and feudal crown subjects, with nowhere near the civil rights that apply in other western European countries. Think of the Post Office, Grenfell and the various other scandals playing out before our eyes. We are the nobodies in our own land, whilst a small coterie of posh chaps in the government run the show in their own interests with incidental regard for the rest of us, aided and abetted by Sir Humphrey and his army of snake-in-the-grass apparatchiks.

Parliamentary Ombudsman were armed with a plethora of evidence against the Insolvency Service and their failures to fully and properly investigate the conduct of a bankrupt. It took them almost a year to come to a conclusion (which required chasing up at intervals, due to their incompetence), with missed deadlines. These civil servants all 'work' from home (and I use the word 'work' loosely), and are never available to pick up the phone. They are wholly biased towards the governmental department it allegedly investigates. Evidence means nothing, they always have 'legislation' on hand to eliminate the government from any responsibility or remit. Absolutely hopeless and a massive waste of taxpayer's money. These civil servants hold all the power, and they enjoy lording it over us peasants, because they know from the outset what the outcome will be, before they even bother to glance over your complaint. Like all ombudsman services, this one is no exception. They are amoral, corrupt and biased. Save yourself time, energy and disappointment - there will be no justice for the average layperson.

PHSO produce reports noting they have a full awareness of the cover up culture with the NHS. They then use that knowledge and experience to ensure the cover up stays exactly that which gives them more fodder to report on at a later date.

There is no better way of wasting time than complaining about an NHS wrong doing, even if you have evidence of the NHS being intentionally malicious.

You will be ignored, your life will be made worse.

#DoctorsLieFACT #DoctorsTreatSymptomsNOTtheCauseFACT
#DoctorsKeepYouSickFACT
#DoctorsFundedByDrugCompaniesFACT
#DoctorsNeverCareAboutYouFACT
#NHS=NationalHarmScamFACT
#PHSO= NOT EVEN WORTH THE EFFORT

The pho is a CORRUPT SERVICE. I took my case to them and they ignored the facts and protected the nhs failings. That changed my life and require me to have more surgery. I’m so angry they get away with this sort of thing because they know the poor patient who’s suffered at the hands of negligent surgeons and cannot work has no money to spend on judicial review process to take this corrupt organisation on

The PHSO is a completely pointless, incompetent, corrupt quango funded by the taxpayer. It took 3 years simply to accept flimsy and disingenuous "evidence" from a Health Trust. I wish I had not wasted my time writing to this farcical non organisation. A complete waste of taxpayer money.

A pointless corrupt process. The Parliamentary Ombudsman simply accepted the word of the Department for Education when they claimed to have investigated and reviewed the evidence in my situation, when the truth was that they refused to look at my proof and only accepted the fabricated documentation of the guilty party (a school). The consequences to me included unnecessary long-term unemployment, potential loss of earnings of over £100,000 and damage to my professional reputation. They did not consider any of these consequences to be Seriously Wrong enough to intervene. They proved themselves to be just as corrupt as the Department for Education and guilty party involved.

complaint about dwp. And credit card issue resolved by my self. Not the ombudsmen service

Ombudsmen is not fit for purpose and designed to time waste and do nothing. Its best to take legal action.

waste of time they took 6 months for no reason I suspected it would I used the service 10 years ago in 2024 I thought it would change but no. still the same. they will always side with the other side no matter the evidence and make excuses up. the system and the role of the Ombudsman in any category is to time waste. Only poor people with no money use this service. There will be no justice at all.

you’re better off taking legal action and writing to the company your taking legal action if you don’t fix the problem. I just ended up telling the police on the staff member for harassment. and getting solicitors. person was arrested and charged. I will get justice this way and compensation. had same problem with the financial ombudsmen they side with the credit card or gas and electric companies and waste your time. I just took legal action against credit card before it went to small claims court my claim was settled out of court as soon as they got my letter before action. all my debt was wiped and they paid £10,000 compensation. This was capital one credit card. so, it seems its best to take action yourself instead using this waste of time service Ombudsman should be in jail for fraud and time wasting and wasting public money it’s really designed to time waste and make you think they are helping it’s not, it’s designed not to help you at all. you need to take action yourself and it would be legal action or tell the police depending what your situation it is. we should all get Ombudsman cancelled for good, its really only designed for people who are low on money and cannot afford to take it to court.
My circumstances I have no money low on funds how I did it was to look up the law online, and wrote a legal letter before action to credit cards. And gave them warnings. That did it for me. The dwp I just call the police told them I was being harassed, and I record the it. They saw the evidence person was arrested. Before that I complained nothing was done. If I did not call the police, I believe I would be in prison for murder because the person at the dwp was causing me harm and distress and I was ready to attack them. But I ended up calling the police instead. And make sure you record people just encase you need evidence these people are not above the law. And please complain about the ombudsmen they are a waste of time and corrupt its designed only for poor people. which they know they can mess around with. no one with money will use their service when they have the money to take court action.