Two Sides to Every Story: Complainants' and Doctors' Perspectives in Disputes about Medical Care in a General Practice Setting |
| |
| Authors: | JUDITH ALLSOP |
| |
| Affiliation: | Professor of Health Policy at South Bank University. She has written widely on health policy in Britain. A second edition of her book, Health Policy and the NHS, is in press. Her particular research interests are in dissatisfaction, complaints, and dispute handling in health care as well as ethical issues in bio-medicine. Her research developed from adjudicating complaints about GPs and she is currently a member of a committee reviewing NHS complaint procedures. |
| |
| Abstract: | The paper examines 110 complaints about general practitioners adjudicated by a health authority. This was a 10 percent subset of complaints received. Complainants' letters were analyzed in order to identify the issues complained about, who complained, what they wanted and how they structured their accounts. The most common single cause of complaint was the lack of a home visit but a third involved issues of diagnosis and treatment. Most people complained to get an investigation rather than for personal redress. Very few considered suing. Doctors, in their response to complaints adopted a number of defence strategies. In a minority of cases they stepped outside the bounds of professional behavior. In the light of impending changes in complaints systems in the U.K., it is argued that a forum for the expression of conflicting accounts remains. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
