NHS Complaints Mediation for disputes between patients and general practitioners, dentists and other health practitioners 

London-based CAOS Conflict Management provides NHS Complaints Mediation. Please contact us on 020 3371 7507 if you would like assistance with resolving a complaint whether you are from a GP or Dental practice or other Primary care provider, or from a CCG.

If you are a patient involved in a complaint and believe NHS Complaints Mediation would be useful, you can propose this to the Trust or practice your complaint is being made to. There is an expectation that all NHS complaints be given access to some form of dispute resolution support where requested and it may be that the organisation has provision in place for this.

Here is a slide share presentation about NHS Complaints Mediation given at the NHS Complaints Forum on 14th March 2019: 

NHS Complaints Mediation can be useful in helping to resolve difficulties between patients and General Practitioners, Dentists and other health practitioners or support staff such as Receptionists and Practice Managers or complaints made by a patient about a level of service they feel was not satisfactory.

There is an NHS Complaints Procedure for making a formal complaint when a patient is not satisfied with the care or treatment they have received or they have been refused treatment for a condition. Often, complaints can be resolved via 'local resolution' meaning by the providers of the service a patient is unhappy with, however if this does not satisfy the patient or, in some cases, the relative of or carer for the patient, the complaint can be taken further to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

However, what is often not highlighted because it is not strictly part of the complaints procedure used, is that NHS Complaints Mediation is an alternative option for trying to resolve the difficulty or complaint that exists.

The use of NHS Complaints Mediation does not mean that a patient cannot still pursue a complaint if it does not resolve their concerns but it does give the opportunity for a much more informal, less bureaucratic way of dealing with the complaint.

Often it can resolve situations that may otherwise have taken months or even years to carry through and often with results that lead to a 'winner' and a 'loser' in the complaint without any real clarity that the complaint has been heard or sincerely responded to.

An example of a real-life NHS Complaints Mediation case….

Here's an example of a situation that used NHS Complaints Mediation that had gone on for a long time without resolution and mediation resolved it in around one hour, simply because it gave the opportunity for the practitioner and patient to sit down in a blame-free, confidential meeting and have a frank and open discussion about what happened, giving the patient the chance to express their concerns and the practitioner, a Dentist in this case, to explain what happened and why - to the satisfaction of the patient as it turned out.

There is a tradition of complaints being responded to adversarially and, as such, are a source of stress and immense bureaucracy rather than an opportunity to listen and learn from difficulties that arise in the providing of a service, whether by the NHS for patients or by Universities in the provision of learning support for students or in many other areas. Mediation provides a forum for that opportunity for listening and learning and, often, change from the way things have been done to new, more effective ways of doing things to arise from complaints.

CAOS Conflict Management provides mediation in such situations.

If you have a complaint about treatment provided by an NHS service and would wish to try mediation to resolve it, contact the service provider about whom you wish to complain and ask if they offer mediation to help resolve complaints. They may already have mediation available for you to use but if not, ask them to contact us on 020 3371 7507 and we will explain that we:

• Are an independent provider of mediation services (it is important that a mediation provider does not have a direct connection with those involved in the complaint)
• Have a lot of experience of mediating in complaints situations including in NHS complaints
• Will remain impartial in all our dealings with those involved and are not there to take sides or advocate for one view or another but to help a constructive conversation to go ahead towards resolving the complaint
• Ensure all records of discussions held are destroyed after we meet with those involved, apart from any agreements or other documented outcomes that are created by the participants in the joint mediation meeting. This is done to ensure confidentiality of all content of the meeting which helps people to feel more comfortable about talking openly about what has happened in the situation.

If you are a health service provider whether Primary Care or a Trust looking for mediation support for resolving complaints made by patients, please contact us on 020 3371 7507 to discuss this with us.

CAOS also provides conflict management skills training and conflict coaching to help develop communication and conflict resolution skills for responding to difficult situations with patients and between staff.