ABSTRACT
Healthcare organisations should ensure that their complaints handling policies include appropriate references to conciliation as a means of complaints resolution. Key issues should be highlighted with cross-referencing to other relevant policies and procedures. ‘Integrated governance arrangements representing best practice are in place in all health care organisations and across all health communities and clinical networks.’ One of the aims of integrated governance is to prevent the development of silos which exist independently of each other, thus preventing the lessons learnt in one part of an organisation from being applied to another. The conciliation process may also highlight training or support issues that need to be managed through an individual staff member’s ongoing professional supervision. Some organisational changes are relatively easy to bring about, others are more difficult. Cultural changes are among the most challenging to make, yet these are often necessary, and it is sometimes through complaints that the need for cultural changes achieves recognition by senior management.
