Better services and fewer complaints the goal for ombudsman Tyndall

THE family of a stroke victim who died after a fall from a hospital bed were distraught after their father’s remains were left in a busy ward for more than six hours.

It also took Limerick Regional Hospital more than two weeks to notify a coroner of the 61-year-old’s death.

Mr Brown (not his real name) had been admitted to Limerick Regional Hospital after suffering a stroke. But he died two days after a fall in which he suffered wounds to his head, a broken tooth, and cuts to his tongue.

His daughter sought answers and went to the Ombudsman’s office. In 2010, then-ombudsman Emily O’Reilly concluded that there were “unacceptable failings” in how the hospital cared for the Mr Brown.

The case exemplifies what role the ombudsman’s office serves in addressing complaints from the public about public bodies, including hospitals.

The office handled more than 3,500 complaints last year but with a 10% reduction in staff.

Newly appointed ombudsman Peter Tyndall knows it will be a case of doing more with less under his watch. But, having served as ombudsman in Wales for the last five years, he also has ambitions to extend the remit of the office and to tear down any red tape delaying the resolution of public interest issues.

The no-nonsense ombudsman points to initiatives abroad, which he thinks could simplify the complaints system for the public. But he hopes primarily to prevent complaints in the first place by ensuring that public services, such as health care, resolve problems before they go on to affect greater numbers of the public.

“The pattern of health services under great pressure is one I’m familiar with,” says Mr Tyndall. “Resources are tight, demand is increasing. One of the things I’m keen to do is develop better working relationships with the Department of Health and the HSE. We want to get the right outcomes for people but we want to do that in a way where there’s acknowledgment of the role of the office and proper respect for the decisions reached and recommendations made.

“Part of the function is about investigating individual complaints, but a very large part of it is making sure that public services improve. I want to look at the possibility of more common practice, better learning about complaint handling and bodies themselves dealing properly with complaint in the first instance.”

This sounds logical. But his predecessor was more than frustrated trying to make authorities redress certain situations. Ms O’Reilly, in several speeches in her final days as Ireland’s ombudsman, highlighted areas neglected or ignored by authorities.

The Government ignored recommendations into a controversial Lost at Sea fishing compensation scheme, sparked by the case of a fishing boat owner who lost his life, along with his 16-year-old son and three crew members, off Donegal in 1981.

The Government ignored her recommendation on mobility grants and retrospective payments and abolished the grants for vulnerable people.

She warned that existing problems in prisons and immigration centres should come under her remit.

Ms O’Reilly summed up her frustrations in a speech at the end of her term: “If the financial trumps the social, the personal, the human, again and again and again, is that just politics as usual or can it ever be corralled into a box called maladministration?”

Of course, the successes of the office should not be forgotten, especially in highlighting injustices in health. The largest number of complaints relate to social welfare, while local authorities account for a third and a fifth are in relation to the HSE.

However, a potentially more significant group in the long run could be private bodies using public funds, such as nursing homes, says Mr Tyndall. But it will be up to the Government whether they extend the remit to cover this area and others in receipt of exchequer funds, as is provided for in legislation drawn up in 2012.

Many cases relating to nursing homes came before Ms O’Reilly, but only when the HSE was directly involved in the care of a patient, not just the funding. “I think that’s a significant omission from the current jurisdiction which the current legislation is designed to correct,” she said.

Independent oversight is also needed in the areas of social housing bodies, phone services and energy suppliers, suggests the watchdog. In Britain, for example, a not-for profit company called Ombudsman Services oversees complaints in communications, including phone services.

Simplifying complaint procedures is also a priority, especially the introduction of one complaint form and system for all public services.

“It works extremely well in Scotland and they’re able to provide training for staff in the public sector for managing complaints because there’s only one training package required because everybody is using the same process,” said Mr Tyndall. Of course, getting co0operation across a plethora of bodies for one complaints system is another matter.

This and other ambitions though will all depend on the money available to the ombudsman and its partner office of the information commissioner.

“The minister [Brendan Howlin] has been quite helpful up until now, but we do need to keep a careful eye,” said Mr Tyndall. “In terms of any ambition in developing the role of the office, we need to ensure the resources are there so that can be done without detriment to the existing workload.”

Often though, the ombudsman’s office can make changes without large-scale investigations. “At this time of year, somebody’s complaining to the local authority because their heating is not working,” said Mr Tyndall. “A phonecall from us asking them to send a plumber out is a far more effective response then starting an investigation.”

A focus during his six-year tenure will also be new ways of communicating with the public, including the more vulnerable in society. Regional seminars in Cork and Limerick will be used to target these people who are less unlikely to make first contact with the ombudsman’s office.

Equally, officials expect to make the most of social media to reach out to younger citizens. Mr Tyndall knows not all options are suitable to complaints. He jokes: “Twitter’s always going to be a problem because it would have to be a short complaint.”