It’s done. Earlier today I finally submitted a Service Quality and Complaints Commission Dissatisfaction Form, to the hospital where the diagnosis of my disease was delayed by almost three months.
Why was it delayed? Because – in my view – a specialist physician ignored its signs and symptoms for that long. Ignored me, as a patient. You can read my post entitled ‘betrayal’ for details of what occurred.
According to the brochure that I picked up at the hospital, and the information on the government’s website, I should hear from them within forty-five days. So now I wait.
If you’re not in Canada, you may be wondering why this information is on a government website. Hospitals here are run by the government, at a provincial level – often with regional or local governing boards. So any complaint against a hospital is, in this way, a complaint against a government service.
The Dissatisfaction Form (notice that they don’t use the word “complaint”?) is only two pages long, but patients can attach additional pages if there’s not enough room in the form.
There definitely wasn’t enough room for me; I added another nine pages – typed and single-spaced! – of additional notes as part of my complaint. I’ll post news here, as it flows in.
My own work has for years been in bioethics, or biomedical ethics, and patient privacy protection. I never would have imagined that I’d be a patient submitting a complaint…
I’ve worked in a hospital environment, and know how seriously most people in healthcare take their roles and duties of caring for patients. It has been a disheartening experience for me, to happen upon a specialist physician who didn’t seem to do so.
To know that it will likely take much longer to recover from this disease that it would have if only this doctor had listened to me – or even bothered to look at my hand – over the course of almost three months.
Update, 21.08.17:
A few people have asked why I haven’t named the hospital, or the specialist, involved in my complaint. First off, I’ve had many other experiences at this hospital which were positive. I don’t want to give the hospital a bad name over one specific situation.
And I’m hoping that my complaint will be taken seriously. If it isn’t, then I’ll consider including the hospital’s name in my posts. As for the specialist’s name, I’m also waiting for the outcome of the complaint or patient ‘dissatisfaction’ process. Drop back by the blog for updates…
