ABSTRACT
The healthcare setting offers unique opportunities as well as challenges to a Restorative Practice (RP) approach. This chapter aims to contribute to the Handbook’s ambitions by exploring the prospects of applying restorative justice in healthcare settings. RP has the potential to provide a much-needed forum for dialogue, a space for those involved in a conflict or dispute. It has the power to change the narrative of powerlessness and failure to one in which a dispute or clinical error is transformed into an opportunity for growth. Using original data from the authors’ direct experiences in healthcare, the chapter argues that there are significant conflicts in the health sector that are often not adequately dealt with via the courts. Additionally, the spiralling costs of litigation indicate that more needs to be done to bring resolution earlier and without resorting to costly legal processes. For patients, the benefits would be timely attention to their complaints and the opportunity to affect Quality Improvement in the relevant setting. For clinicians, the benefits would also be significant: such cases could provide learning that would benefit them and their future patients. Finally, for Healthcare Trusts and hospitals, the investment needed to train staff in RP would be minuscule compared to even one case of litigation. The chapter concludes by arguing that restorative justice in the healthcare setting internationally would be valuable and have far-reaching beneficial effects.
