In response to the report - My expectations for raising concerns and complaints, Andrew Kaye, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Independent Age, said:
"Older people use health and care services more than anyone else, but are typically less likely to raise their concerns or complain when they have received a poor service. We hope today’s new vision from the Ombudsman and Healthwatch England goes on to encourage far more older people to speak out when they experience poor care. However, care providers need to play their full part and make sure they always take service users’ complaints seriously the very first time they are raised. Older people’s experiences of even communicating simple concerns prove fraught enough, so there is a great deal of work to be done before we can be confident we’ve achieved a better approach to complaints handling across our complex system of health and social care”.