Gisborne Hospital Report - Health and Disability Commissioner

Gisborne Hospital 1999 – 2000
Incident Reporting and Complaints Procedure
“The surgeons would have witnessed much of the behaviour. None of it
was addressed. There was a view that the issues were about us not liking
Brian Lucas, about a personality problem between us.”
4.39 It was reported that a member of the medical staff had said to a nurse: “I bet
they wouldn’t have made an issue if he was young and handsome.”
Dr Lucas’ comments
4.40 Dr Lucas was asked by the investigation team to comment on the most serious
issues that Tairawhiti Healthcare needs to address, relating to theatre practice.
He responded:
“There should be a timely incident reporting process. Those issues that
are brought up in incident reports are worthy of discussion, so the first
thing is to have a hospital-wide incident report process that produces
results and resolution and completion on things during a staff member’s
lifetime in a timely way. As a subset of that, could there not be a real
good attempt at getting an interdisciplinary discussion or getting a forum
started if it isn’t already? In the first quarter of this year after the
millennium there didn’t seem to be anything.”
4.41 Analysis of the current policy and feedback from staff using the system
indicates that further review and development of the system is essential if it is
to become an effective component of THL’s quality management system.
4.42 In light of the issues raised regarding Dr Lucas, the Chief Executive
commented that the challenge for THL “is to get the process right and ensure
that staff get appropriate feedback” on incident forms submitted.
5. THE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Complaints handling
5.1 Complaints are defined by Tairawhiti Healthcare in the Incident and
Complaint Management Policy as “a formal expression of dissatisfaction or
grievance”. Enquiries are defined as “an observation or remark that queries
some aspect of service”. The policy does not cover staff complaints.
5.2 The policy notes that complaints are to be passed on to the appropriate senior
manager and Clinical Director where applicable within 24 hours of logging.
The policy states: “Review of complaints is the responsibility of the
appropriate senior manager. All complaints are reviewed.”
5.3 All reviews of complaints are to be completed within 14 days, and in the event
of the review being unable to be completed within that timeframe the senior
manager must notify the complainant in writing of progress. The complainant
must be furnished with progress reports as required by the Code of Rights
(Rights 10(3) and 10(7)).
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