Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T03:18:21.060Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Withering the Citizen, Managing the Consumer: Complaints in Healthcare Settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

Judith Allsop  and
Kathryn Jones
Judith Allsop
Affiliation:
Professor of Health Policy, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Lincoln E-mail: [email protected]
Kathryn Jones
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, De Montfort University, Leicester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper considers concepts of citizenship and consumerism in light of complaints about healthcare, which have risen since the early1990s, due to a greater willingness by the healthcare user to complain, and also the reforms in complaint systems. The narrow legal model for dealing with complaints has been replaced by a managerial model based on corporate sector practice that views complaint handling as a way of retaining customers and organisational learning. The managerial model has proved difficult to embed into the English NHS and has been superposed with a centralised regulatory system that aims to manage performance while also being responsible for reviewing, complaints and being responsive to complainants. It is argued that this may have positive consequences in terms of improving healthcare quality but more negatively, the promotion of consumerism within complaints processes has led to a loss of the right to due process and public accountability.

Type
Themed Section on Choice or voice
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 233 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbot, S., Meyer, J., Bentley, J. and Lanceley, J. (2006), ‘Patient advice and liaison services: strengthening the voice of the service user in health-care’, Health Expectations, 9, 2, 138–147.Google Scholar
Allsop, J. (1994), ‘Two sides to every story: complainants' and doctors' perspectives in disputes about medical care in a general practice setting’, Law and Policy, 16, 2, 149–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allsop, J. (2006), ‘Regaining trust in medicine: professional strategies’, Current Sociology, 54, 4, 621–636.Google Scholar
Allsop, J., Jones, K. and Baggott, R. (2004), ‘Health consumer groups: a new social movement?’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 26, 6, 737–756.Google Scholar
Allsop, J. and Mulcahy, L. (1996), Regulating Medical Work, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Baldock, J. (2003), ‘On being a welfare consumer in a consumer society’, Social Policy and Society, 2, 1, 65–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevan, G. and Hood, C. (2006), ‘What's measured is what matters: targets and gaming in the English public health care system’, Public Administration, 84, 3, 517–538.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office (1991), Citizen's Charter: Raising the Standard, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cabinet Office Complaints Task Force (1995), Putting Things Right, Main Report, London, HMSO.Google Scholar
Citizen's Advice Bureau (2005), ‘The pain of complaining: CAB/ICAS evidence of the NHS complaints procedure’, unpublished report.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. (1997), ‘Capturing the customer: consumerism and social welfare’, Self, Agency and Society, 1, 1, 55–73.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1995), ‘Being heard: the report of a review committee on NHS complaints procedures’, Department of Health, London.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2001), ‘Handling complaints: monitoring the NHS Complaints Procedures, England 2000–1’, Department of Health, London.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2004), The National Health Service (Complaints) Regulations, SI 2004 No. 1768, Department of Health, London.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2006), The National Health Service (Complaints) Amendment Regulations, SI 2006 No. 2084, Department of Health, London.Google Scholar
DHSS (Department of Health and Social Security) (1973), ‘Report of the Committee on the Hospital Complaints Procedures’, DHSS, London.Google Scholar
Felstiner, W.L.F., Abel, R.L. and Sarat, A. (1980–1), ‘The emergence and transformation of disputes: naming, blaming, claiming’, Law and Society Review, 15, 3–4, 631–654.Google Scholar
Franks Committee (1957), Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Inquiries, Cmnd.218 (Chair: Sir Oliver Franks), HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Goodman, J. (2006), ‘Manage complaints to increase loyalty’, Quality Progress, 39, 2, 28–34.Google Scholar
Gulland, J. (2006), ‘Second tier reviews of complaints in health and social care’, Heath and Social Care in the Community, 14, 3, 206–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Head, S. (2006), ‘Got a pain? Don't complain’, Society Guardian, 9 May, at www.society.guardian.co.uk [accessed 10/5/2006].Google Scholar
Health Service Ombudsman (2005), ‘Making things better?’, A report on the reform of the NHS complaints procedure in England, HC 415, London.Google Scholar
Healthcare Commission (2005), Meeting of the Healthcare Commission, 23 June 2005 Report from the Head of Complaints, Healthcare Commission, London.Google Scholar
Healthcare Commission (2007), ‘Spotlight on complaints’, Report on the Second–Stage Complaints about the NHS in England, Healthcare Commission, London.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A.O. (1970), Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (1973), Complainants against Doctors, London: Charles Knight.Google Scholar
Kyffin, R., Cook, G. and Jones, M. (1997), ‘Complaints handling and monitoring in the NHS: a study of 12 trusts in the north west region’, University of Liverpool Institute of Medicine Law and Bioethics, Liverpool.Google Scholar
Leggatt, A. (2001), Tribunal for users – One system, One Service: Report of the Review of Tribunals (Sir Andrew Leggatt), London: Lord Chancellor's Department.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Bostock, S. (1999), ‘The social psychology of making and responding to hospital complaining and claiming as social processes’, in Rosenthal, M., Mulcahy, L., and Lloyd-Bostock, S. (eds), Medical Mishaps: Pieces of the Puzzle, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, T.H. (1950), Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moran, M. (2002), ‘Review article: understanding the regulatory state’, British Journal of Political Science, 32, 2, 391–413.Google Scholar
MORI (1995), Attitudes Towards and Experience of Complaints Systems, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Mulcahy, L. (2003), Disputing Doctors: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Complaints about Medical Care, Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Mulcahy, L. and Tritter, J. (1998), ‘Pathways, pyramids and icebergs? Mapping the links between dissatisfaction and complaints’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 20, 6, 825–847.Google Scholar
National Audit Office (2005), ‘Citizen redress: what citizens can do if things go wrong with public services’, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, HC 21 Session 2004/5, London, NAO.Google Scholar
Newman, J. and Vidler, E. (2006), ‘Discriminating customers, responsible patients, empowered users: consumerism and the modernisation of health care’, International Social Policy, 35, 2, 193–209.Google Scholar
Power, M. (1997), Audit Society: The Rituals of Verification, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. (2005), ‘Complaints and forgiveness: the healing process’, British Journal of Midwifery, 13, 4, 243.Google Scholar
Sennett, R. (2003), Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality, Harmonsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Serber, D. (1980), ‘Resolution or rhetoric: managing complaints in the California Department of Insurance’, in Nader, R., No Access to Law: Alternatives to the American Judicial System, London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, I. and Aldridge, A. (2003), ‘Consumerism, health and social order’, Social Policy and Society, 2, 1, 35–43.Google Scholar
Shipman Inquiry (2004), ‘Independent public inquiry into the issues arising from the case of Harold Frederick Shipman’, Fifth Report, Chair Dame Janet Smith, The Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. and Hastie, C. (2003), ‘Dissatisfaction with the NHS: too few resources or the ‘New Consumerism?’, Political Quarterly, 74, 2, 233–240.Google Scholar
Wallace, H. and Mulcahy, L. (1999), Cause for Complaint: An Evaluation the Effectiveness of the NHS Complaints Procedure, London: The Public Law Project.Google Scholar
Wu, A.S. (2002), ‘Beyond the paradoxical conception of “Civil Society without Citizenship”’, International Sociology, 17, 4, 529–548.Google Scholar