Customer service, a la NHS

For all the talk in the last 2 or 3 years about the NHS being overrun by administrators and KPIs, it seems that however much the standard of care has improved under recent governments, even the apparently much enlarged bureaucracy can't seem to manage to provide decent patient service. And before I get proper started, no it's not the fault of doctors and nurses, it's probably down to a whole number of complex factors that I probably don't understand. I'm not wanting to judge, merely to observe.

To explain, a colleague at work explained that her (serious) complaint written to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital received a quick-fire acknowledgement that a reply could be expected in the next 25 weeks.

25 weeks. That's almost 6 months! Have they really got many complaints to deal with? Or are they just trying to lower the expectations of everybody so that if they manage to address the problem within, say, 8 weeks, people are more likely to be impressed? Sounds like the risk managers and loss mitigators need some lessons in customer service.

Perhaps I'm making a fuss in my ignorance - perhaps it is seen as a fair length of time to conduct a full investigation, suggest whether an apology is in order and act upon it. But if satisfaction isn't delivered, then how long would it take to escalate a complaint? I would imagine most people would be too fed up to bother 6 months down the road apart from the odd hero and the vexatatious litigants.