The board’s Hospital Advisory Committee was told this week that most of the 350,000 letters it sent last year were composed using one of almost 1000 letter templates stored on its computer system. The Canterbury DHB, which recently went through a similar review of its postal policies, only had 20 templates, SDHB quality and governance executive director Gail Thompson said. Letter writing has been an Achilles heel for the SDHB, which in the past has been asked by the health and disability commissioner to rewrite apology letters deemed inadequate. Mr Thompson said 28% of the complaints received by the SDHB annually were to do with poor communication, and many of those related to letters. Staff were asked for more details of a planned South Island-wide review of DHB letter writing.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 06, 2021 16:30 UTC