British doctors seem to have hit upon a solution to stop complaining patients. They threaten to counter sue for defamation.

 Apparently one patient who had complained about her doctor was called at home and told that he would sue her for defamation if she didn't withdraw her complaint. Acting as a perfectly normal human being, she withdrew her complaint. We'd like to bet, however, that she has probably told a few dozen people about this treatment.

 Another general practitioner said he would sue one of his patients for defamation unless she changed portions of her complaint.

 While it is not easy for a doctor to win legal action for defamation, because people have the right to complain, legal action costs money and most patients will simply walk away from complaining if it is going to cost them significant amounts of money. And several have persisted with resulting huge legal bills.

 A member of the Association of Community Councils in the UK reportedly said, "We are appalled that, no matter how unjustified the health care professional thinks the complaint is, they use threatening behavior to stop the complaint going ahead." 

 A few other voices in the community also say this action threatens to undermine any attempts on the part of the government to improve National Health Service standards in the U.K. and to make medical professional accountable to their "customers."

 It's when one reads information like this that at TMI we become more and more convinced that we have a huge distance to travel before complaints are seen as gifts. At a minimum, it would require changing our advice on what to tell a complaining customer. It might sound like this:  "Thank you very much for your feedback. And by the way, if you persist in filing a formal complaint, I'll sue your very shirt right off your back."

 We wonder if these British doctors, or their insurance company, are looking in the mirror at their behavior. Do they understand the implications of what can happen to an industry if no complaints are allowed to be expressed. And for all the good British doctors who don't take this approach, do they understand they are being implicated by the behaviors of their colleagues who threaten legal action when they see a complaint coming at them. It's time for a more reasoned approach to what quickly could relegate the British National Health Service to a significantly worsened public image.
 

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
Emotional Value
 
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back
#29	Complaints in the Hospitality Business
#30	Customers Be More Cynical
#31	Above All, Communicate When Things Go Wrong!
_#32	Eliminating Blame
_#33	Friendliness Keeps Them Coming Back!
_#34	Seeking Out Complaints

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

email: 

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