NHS 'failing public' with advice

Some website and e-mail requests were not answered at all

The NHS is failing to provide the correct advice to many telephone and e-mail queries from the public, an independent watchdog has warned.

The Scottish Consumer Council found confusing information on subjects from dental cover to breast cancer.

About half of callers in a "mystery shopper" exercise were not completely satisfied with the advice given.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said health boards had been asked to take swift action to address the concerns.

Researchers made 560 phone calls and sent 98 e-mails to local NHS boards across Scotland during October 2006, in an exercise backed by the Scottish Executive.

It is time for customer care in the broadest sense to be taken more seriously by NHS bodies in Scotland Douglas Sinclair SCC chairman

Their results highlighted confusing contact information in phone books and on websites, calls being transferred to the wrong person and several boards failing to reply to website or e-mail queries.

An SCC spokesman said about half of the callers had found found the responses were straightforward or mostly helpful.

However, he added: "For others it was highly problematic, taking them down blind alleys, leading to encounters with unhelpful staff or leaving them high and dry with an answering machine."

More than a third of the callers rated the call-handling as poor or very poor, largely because of the failure of staff to answer the query at the first time of asking.

Better standards

Half felt their request had been mostly or completely answered but a further 21% were only partially satisfied and just under a third, 29%, were not satisfied at all.

Inormation on new services like the minor ailment service in community pharmacies or the free NHS eye examination seemed to be difficult to obtain.

Ayrshire and Arran and Highland health boards fared best in the survey.

Lanarkshire and Tayside got the poorest overall results.

The SCC called on boards to develop policies on how to handle inquiries, improve contact information and set standards on how quickly e-mails are answered.

SCC chairman Douglas Sinclair said: "It is time for customer care in the broadest sense to be taken more seriously by NHS bodies in Scotland."

Ms Sturgeon said she expected NHS boards to provide the right advice and information.

She added: "They have been informed of the report's draft findings and have been asked to take all necessary action to address the issues raised as a matter of urgency."

The study did not cover the NHS 24 helpline.