Health Mediation

Health mediation is a service used when a patient or patient’s representative is unhappy and dissatisfied with the treatment or care they have received. Health mediation can be part of a health provider's complaints procedure. Mediators act as an independent impartial “go between” for practitioners, patients or their representatives.

The mediator does not represent the patient, their representative or the practitioner but all of the parties involved in the mediation process. The process provides the opportunity for patients or their representatives to air their feelings and thoughts to the practitioners they have received care from.

In health mediation, patients or their representatives may have questions, feelings and thoughts and they require a response or acknowledgement from the practioner/s. Mediation can provide a forum for the practioners to address these feelings.

The UNITE process

The health organisation will refer the case to UNITE.

A mediator will contact the referrer, usually the Complaints Manager, to obtain clients' contact details and information about the issues involved in the dispute.

Separate contact will be made with the patient or their representative and the practitioner/s to introduce the mediation service, discuss the process and briefly talk about the issues.

If appropriate the mediators will hold a face to face case interviews with the patient or their representative and the Practitioner/s.

The mediators may seek additional help and advice from an expert.

The mediators will facilitate a joint meeting between the patient or their representative and the Practitioner/s if it is agreed by all parties.

The mediators will assist in the writing of the agreement between the patient or their representative and the Primary Care Practitioner as appropriate - using their words.

The agreement reached will be fed back to the referrer, subject to the confidentiality agreement between the parties.

Health Mediation Case Study

Mrs Chapman had a complaint against her GP surgery about the way she felt they diagnosed her illness. Mrs Chapman had written to the surgery and made a formal complaint. The complaint was not targeted particularly at one practitioner but the surgery as a whole. Mrs Chapman felt she had suffered a “lack of care” from the surgery. She felt that the diagnosis she received from her surgery was incorrect and felt the treatment she received was not satisfactory because of a misdiagnosis. Mrs Chapman felt she had suffered unduly. The surgery responded to Mrs Chapman’s complaint in writing, however Mrs Chapman was dissatisfied with the outcome of her complaint. The General Practitioners were disappointed to receive the complaint and would have liked Mrs Chapman to approach them directly as an alternative to submitting a formal complaint. The Primary Care Trust responsible for the General Practitioners Surgery referred Mrs Chapman and the General Practitioners in question to UNITEs mediation service.

Dr Jackson was Mrs Chapman’s General Practitioner and Dr Stapleton and Dr Turner were partners in the practice with Dr Jackson. The mediators contacted all three General Practitioners. The mediators discussed the mediation process with all parties involved. All parties agreed to take part. However, it was felt by the General Practitioners that only Dr Jackson and Dr Stapleton should attend the joint meeting stage of the process because if all the doctors went it would appear that they were defending themselves against the patient's complaint. This was discussed between Mrs Chapman and the mediators and Mrs Chapman stated who she would like to attend the meeting. Her views were respected and Dr Jackson and Dr Stapleton attended the joint meeting, as she requested. The joint meeting provided the patient, Mrs Chapman, and the General Practitioners, Dr Jackson and Dr Stapleton the following: · An opportunity to have their feelings and thoughts surrounding the complaint listened to and acknowledged · A constructive forum to answer questions that have arisen in a dispute · Equal time to speak without interruption· An opportunity to discuss the future relationship between Mrs Chapman and the surgery.

The General Practitioners responded to Mrs Chapman’s concerns about her treatment and acknowledged her questions regarding her treatment. They also agreed to action some of Mrs Chapman’s requests about giving information to patients. Mrs Chapman stated that she wanted to continue as a patient at the practice and it was agreed that the parties would start afresh after the mediation.

It was agreed by Dr Jackson, Dr Stapleton and Mrs Chapman that the mediators could submit a copy of the agreement to the Primary Care Trust Complaints Manager who had referred the case.