Dear Western Health and Social Care Trust (Northern Ireland),

In relation to WHSCT and complaints made to their complaints dept please outline the following information;

1. Why would anyone who wants to make general comments, suggestions, queries, requests to various Trust staff who are responsible for the areas s/he is engaging about- be asked to direct all her contact via the complaints dept (Sept 2017)

2. If someone wants to engage with a Trust staff member , using her PPI rights (2009 social reform act) why would they also be directed to the complaints dept?

3. When a complaint is received by the WHSCT complaints team, please outline the genric investigation process from start to finish ie who it goes to (not people's names but their job status), everyone who sees it before it is signed off, if it is seen by lawyers and under what grounds is it seen by lawyers.

4. If staff's directors are investigating their own staff- how is impartiality maintained?

5. Of the five, at least complaints I have made over the past 10 years, none of those have been upheld by WHSCT, in other words, they have defended their own staff and their own conduct in every SINGLE point I made. Is that a culture? and a directed policy of 'accept no responsibility?'

6. Do the Trust engage with the complainant after the complaint has been exhausted, to see what learning can be achieved, and if not, why not?
(Please outline how the Trust tries to learn)

7. Can The Trust state how many (in %) of all its complaints received in the last 12 months have been upheld and how many have been dismissed ie WHSCT's conduct upheld? If that is not recorded, how can the complaints dept's efficacy be monitored and how can Trust leaning bias be monitored?

Yours faithfully,

Joan Corrigan