Renewed criticism of the Health and Social Care Inspectorate for its slow processing of a complaint submitted pursuant to the Patient Safety Act (SFS 2010:659) and of the agency’s processing times for such cases in general

Summary of the decision: In recent years, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has been critical of the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) in several decisions for its slow processing of complaints.

In one complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in which the complainant reported IVO for its slow processing of a complaint, it took IVO two years and two months to process the case. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that this processing time has clearly exceeded that which is reasonable and acceptable and criticises IVO for its slow processing of the case. The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman also notes that the investigation reveals that the time taken by IVO to process complaints is generally too long. It is the intention of the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman to monitor the agency’s development in this area.

In light of the Swedish National Audit Office’s ongoing review of IVO’s processing of complaints concerning healthcare, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman submits a copy of the decision to the Swedish National Audit Office for information purposes.