HMP Manchester

This report focusses only on concerns mentioned in the Requirement Notice we issued in November 2018, following a joint inspection with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP). At the time we found that:

• The provider did not operate an effective and accessible system for identifying, receiving, recording, handling and responding to complaints.

On undertaking a desk based focused review of the complaints process in May 2019, we found that the provider had addressed all the issues of concern we had identified in the Requirement Notice, and was now compliant with the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in relation to the responsive key question.

When we inspected HMP Manchester in July 2018, we found that the provider did not operate an effective and accessible system for identifying, receiving, recording, handling and responding to complaints.

• The complaints system was not effectively promoted in healthcare or on the prison wings, and some patients spoken to did not know, or were uncertain how to make a complaint. As a result, the provider could not be confident that all patients who wished to submit a complaint to healthcare were doing so.
• The complaints system was not confidential. Patients had to request forms from healthcare staff, and return them unsealed, and responses were also unsealed.

We therefore found that the complaints system was not effective in ensuring that patients were able or willing to submit complaints, or that their information was kept confidential.

During the desk based focused review in May 2019, we found that the provider had made improvements to the complaints process and its promotion, and that complaints submitted were dealt with confidentially.

• Healthcare complaint forms, confidential envelopes, leaflets and posters were available and displayed in locations around the prison, and accessible to patients.
• Patients could also submit confidential healthcare complaints via the electronic kiosk system on the wings, or by telephone or in writing to the trust’s external customer care team.
• Responses to complaints were being returned to patients in sealed envelopes marked “Medical in Confidence”. Copies were being archived in a dedicated folder in healthcare, and no longer scanned onto clinical records.
• A three-month audit indicated that since the start of 2019, all the methods of complaint submission had been used, with an average of 32 complaints a month submitted. This compared to a total four complaints which had been submitted incorrectly via the generic prison complaint system. These had been dealt with confidentially on receipt by healthcare.