Last month I wrote a short post about a letter I’d received, with an update on the status of my patient complaint. The letter was from the regional Service Quality and Complaints Commission, 39 days after they were supposed to have provided me with a conclusion to my complaint.
I’ve been trying to stay positive about this process. I’m hoping that the delay means that they’re doing a very thorough review of my complaint. You can read my posts Betrayal and 39 days late, for details of that letter, and for the reasons for which I felt compelled to submit a complaint in the first place.
Then last weekend I had coffee with a friend, who’s been reading all my posts about this rare disease saga, and she asked me why it seemed that I’d been expecting delays with my complaint.
And I realized that I hadn’t shared part of what I was told when the Commission first received my complaint, called a Dissatisfaction Form. So here goes, better late than never!
I submitted my complaint, by email, on August 15. On August 21 I had a call from someone at the Commission, to advise me that they’d received my documents and would be looking into my complaint. During that call, the Commission representative explained that my complaint wouldn’t be treated as just one complaint.
My Dissatisfaction Form and additional documentation were being split into 3 different files – like investigations – within the regional Service Quality and Complaints Commission:
- The portion regarding the specialist physician would be handled by a Medical Examiner (not a coroner!), a physician within the regional health authority (a governmental body) who looks into any complaints about physicians who work at hospitals and other healthcare institutions within that region
- There part of my complaint about an orthopaedic nurse, who worked as a team with the specialist at the hospital, would looked into by a team of the Commission which deals with complaints against nurses at any of the hospitals in our region
- And, finally, the Service Quality and Complaints Commission would consider the hospital outpatient clinic’s refusal to let me change physicians when I felt that the specialist wasn’t providing appropriate care. When I felt that my signs and symptoms were being ignored.
She told me that I’d normally hear back from the Commission within 45 days, with a conclusion, but that the Commission could request an extension of an additional 15 days.
She also made it clear that there were 2 goals for their investigations into patient dissatisfaction issues, or complaints:
- To find solutions to resolve any on-going or current problem within the institution (a hospital, in my case), that was raised in a complaint
- To recommend corrective measures to the hospital, if any were found to be appropriate
Because I knew, back in August, that my complaint was being split into 3 different files, I was expecting that there would be delays in receiving any conclusions of their investigations or reviews.
But at this point it’s been almost 4 months since I submitted my complaint, so I’m starting to feel that instead of the expression no news is good news, no news is just… no news.