Statement Request
Please refer to our ‘useful notes’ located at the bottom of the page should you require further clarity.
If you received a request to submit a statement in relation to a ‘patient complaint’ please provide us with the following:
1. Details of who is requesting this statement (your Trust legal team, PALS, your Clinical Director, Clinical Supervisor etc.).
2. Where available, a copy of the request (refer to ‘useful notes’ below)
3. A copy of the patient complaint(s) which stipulates the date/month/year
4. A copy of your draft response to this complaint
5. A clear deadline of when the statement is due to be submitted (refer to ‘useful notes’ below)
Draft Response:
To assist with drafting a statement in response to the complaint, we have put together a few pointers to help guide you when compiling and preparing the information:
Ensure you start with a brief introduction stating your name, qualifications, present post and how long you have been in the post.
This should be followed by a chronological sequence of events pertaining to the complaint. This should start with the date and time of first seeing/consulting/becoming responsible for this patient and the venue.
Follow this with an objective narration format of your recollection of events. If there are case notes and/or other records e.g. hand written notes, please use these to ensure a factually accurate documentation of events as they transpired. Avoid any expressions of your feelings (e.g. deeply hurt, upset, disappointed etc or what you felt) as this could come later but is not appropriate in a factual statement.
Review the draft and ensure that all the patients’ questions/concerns/allegations have been addressed to the best of your knowledge and ability.
Useful Notes:
• Confine yourself to your own individual and direct clinical care of the patient and do not comment on the care provided by others. This is particularly true when several care providers are involved in the complaint.
• Ensure that your statement is as detailed and complete as possible. This will avoid a lot of delay at both our ends since our advice is entirely based on information provided by you and inaccurate information could lead to wrong advice.
• Notify us of a deadline when submitting all of the relevant information. Our advisors will ensure that they work to the best of their ability to meet the deadline. Note that our advisors work meticulously to ensure they provide the best possible solution and advice and therefore, should they be required to work at short notice, you may be advised to potentially request an extension of the submission deadline
• If there are multiple concerns and you were only involved in so many, you only need to state ‘I was involved in the care of this patient for concerns no. 1,2,3,4 etc. The remaining concerns raised may be directed towards the team/individual(s) concerned’.
• Try to recollect if there were any other colleagues or staff present and if so, please mention this and also try to obtain their corroborative statement to support your own if possible and appropriate (we will advise you on this)
• Include only relevant correspondence pertaining to the complaint and the response instead of blindly forwarding all the email trails as we must avoid breach of confidentiality of patient sensitive information.
• Ensure that you copy all members of the MDS team included in the email we send you. This ensures that all those who are assisting with your matters are kept up-to-date and additionally maintains continuity of your care in case one or more members of the MDS team are away when we receive your follow up communications.
• If you are required to submit a statement in relation to a complaint against you by your team or Trust (e.g. Datix/SUI) the same principles apply as before with modifications to include details of the incident and the outcome of any investigation/RCA.
• Keep a copy of your statement for your records.