The Health and Social Care Information Centre. Data on Written Complaints in the NHS 2012-2013. The Information Centre for Health and Social Care. http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11490 (Accessed 13/01/14)
Cunningham W, Wilson H. Shame, guilt and the medical practitioner. NZ Med J. 2003; 116:(1183)
Cunningham W, Dovey S. The effect on medical practice of disciplinary complaints: potentially negative for patient care. NZ Med J. 2000; 113:(1121)464-467
All too often, those patients who complain are thought to be unreasonable. Healthcare professionals often feel that patients do not have an understanding of the pressures and hardships that they struggle with on a day-to-day basis. When a patient complains, it is seen by the professional complained about as a wholly negative event, leading to loss of confidence and leaving that professional feeling demoralized. Often complaints are due to a breakdown in communication. Sometimes a patient is unhappy with a treatment charge or simply there is a perception that he/she has been poorly treated. The General Dental Council and Primary Care Trusts (and now their successors) take a dim view of dental practitioners who deal with complaints poorly. This article sets out to offer a different perspective on complaints, so that the complaint system can be used to build trust between dental professionals and patients, instead of instilling demoralization and fear of litigation into those on the receiving end of a complaint.
Clinical Relevance: This article is relevant to all dental professionals as complaints are an inevitability of practice.
Article
Dentistry can be a rewarding career. Sometimes it can seem thankless and it is all too easy to become disillusioned when we do not feel appreciated. This may result from conflict with colleagues within a practice or hospital environment, or from a breakdown of the professional relationship we have with patients. It could be argued that, as a dental professional, it is important to concentrate on the positives and work on the Rousseauian1 premise that patients (and people in general) are intrinsically ethical and moral beings with a focus on values such as compassion and empathy. Accordingly, when dental professionals don't act with compassion and empathy, patients are more likely to find them cold and have reason to find fault.2 As a result, this coldness is often the progenitor of complaints being brought against a practitioner. It is well documented that the empathy scores of dental students decline as they progress through dental school.3 Somewhere along the training pathway it is not being properly emphasized that empathy is one of the key ways dentists and dental care professionals can promote equality and trust in their relationships with patients.
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