Health watchdog faces surge in complaints

The Healthcare Commission is reported to have hired a consultancy firm to help ease a backlog of nearly 4,000 patient complaints. The health watchdog has been forced into the move because of a major surge in grievances, according to the Health Service Journal. It said that if the complaints continue to be received at the current rate, 9,000 will be logged by the end of the commission’s first year in charge -three times as many as were submitted the previous year.