Nearly two thirds of local NHS complaints are still open after 40 days of receipt, it has been claimed.

Councillor David Graham, Fife Council's representative on the NHS Fife board, raised his serious concerns about the complaint backlog at last week's board meeting. 

According to the latest performance data, 62 per cent of open stage two complaints have been open for more than 40 days, with a third open for more than 80. The target, by comparison, is that at least half of stage two complaints should be addressed within 20 working days.

Mr Graham said: “It’s a real concern that nearly two thirds are still open after 40 days. I have to raise it because it’s a real concern for the people of Fife."

The issue was raised again at the meeting during the chairperson’s update. Acting chair Alistair Morris recounted an update from a member of the Scottish Central legal team about increasing complaints to the NHS about Covid-19. 

“What alarmed me most, is that the legal team is starting to see a slow but increasing amount of complaints on Covid-19 either from members of the public who lost someone during the pandemic or indeed from our staff members who felt they were exposed to Covid-19 in an unnecessary, risk averse way,” he said. 

“That number of complaints is increasing and that is going to add to the timescale of dealing with them.” 

A new complaint 'complexity scoring' tool to triage complaints and categorise them as low, moderate, or high complexity is being tested by NHS Fife.

The score will provide insight into the volume of complex complaints that NHS Fife receives and handles, and the hope is that it will eventually help with the backlog.