Complaints against healthcare workers

How do OH and other healthcare professionals cope when accused of wrongdoing?

Summary:

Occupational Health [at Work] examines how and why healthcare professionals can become the subject of a complaint, and why occupational health practitioners might be at higher risk of complaint than others.

How do healthcare workers (HCWs) cope when they are made the subject of a formal complaint? Although most have the appropriate insurances and legal support in place to defend against a claim, few would feel adequately prepared for, or protected against, the devastating personal and professional impact of being the target of an allegation. Data shows that occupational physicians are at high risk of being the subject of a complaint, but also that relatively few of these complaints lead to investigation or sanction. Although there is no comparable data available for other occupational health (OH) professional groups, given the similarity of duties, this high complaint/low sanction ratio may also be a proxy for the OH profession as a whole…

 

Rebecca Ghani – news and features writer for Occupational Health [at Work].

Author: Ghani R

Tags gmc general medical council healthcare worker NMC - Nursing and Midwifery Council oh nursing oh physicians professional practice records - reports stress suicide

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2017 (vol. 14/2) pp13-18

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