CHCs have helped patients with complaints against the NHS

CHCs - bodies which assist patients who have complaints about the NHS - are being abolished on 1 December, almost 30 years since they were launched.

However the various organisations replacing them will not start work until December and some CHCs are already turning away patients seeking help.

The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) - in charge of the new organisations - says it could be several years before they are fully effective.

Refer complainants

CHCs are being replaced with a wide range of new bodies, including patient forums or panels which will have a say in how NHS trusts are run.

Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) are also being established in every trust to coordinate complaints.

But the new organisations have yet to recruit any volunteers.

As well as this, the new foundation trusts - which will remain part of the NHS but have greater local control over their budgets and priorities - will use a different system.

An influential MPs' committee has already warned this could further confuse patients, with foundation trusts creating a "parallel but entirely different" system.

Foundation hospitals aside, the Commons health committee has described the new arrangements as "complex and confusing".

They said in some cases patients would have to negotiate as many as seven separate organisations in order to press a complaint.

CPPIH says it is unhappy that foundation trusts will not be working with the new patient bodies.

One-stop shop

But the health department said the system was much more obvious and would provide a one-stop shop.

Ministers first announced plans to scrap the councils three years ago.

But their first attempt to abolish the councils was thwarted by the House of Lords, where many peers opposed the move.