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This week is a focus on Emails. Every patient is different, and the preferred method of communication should guide your approach—whether that’s a formal letter, email, verbal discussion, or face-to-face meeting. Your complaints policy should also account for and guide any communication difficulties the patient may have. Key Rule: Always respond in the format the … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Hint & Tip of the Week – How Should You Communicate in a Private Patient Complaint? – Email

In healthcare complaints, not every action is always documented. Staff may assume that routine actions or well-intentioned interventions don’t need recording. However, missing evidence makes it difficult to reach accurate findings later in the complaint process. Memories of events—both from the complainant and staff—can differ, creating uncertainty. HINT: TIP:

In healthcare complaints, understanding the Heads of Complaint is crucial. Often, the complainant’s perception of events—how they felt treated, what they thought was communicated, or how they interpreted an outcome—differs from the organisation’s perspective. Staff perceptions can also vary, influenced by human factors and their interpretation of events. At the same time, the reality of … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Hint & Tip of the Week – Both Perception and Reality matter in Complaints

All UK healthcare providers must handle complaints effectively—whether registered with CQC, HIS, HIW, or RQIA or not. Principles may vary slightly, but the core expectation is the same: transparent, prompt, and effective complaint management. In England, Regulation 16 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 sets clear rules: Even unregistered … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Tip of the Week – Do you know your complaint regulations?

Absolutely – subscribing to an external adjudication service enables your patients to have access to an impartial review of a complaint and removes any potential conflict of interest when the dispute cannot be resolved internally. It also provides the organisation with a review of its complaint handling processes and outcomes to help inform learning and … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Tip of the Week – Subscribing to an external party for private patient complaint management support and adjudication – can it help?

Effective complaint management is central to improving patient care and maintaining trust. One key aspect that is often overlooked is understanding the “Heads of Complaint” – the specific elements or issues raised by a complainant. Why it Matters A complainant may perceive their issue one way, while the organisation sees it differently. If this is … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Tip of the Week – Effective complaint management

Complaints can be complex, lengthy and require discussion and explanation. Understanding and relationship management is an important part of complaint management. It can be very frustrating for the complainant to have to repeat the same thing to different people and to try and develop a relationship when the contact within the organisation keeps changing. It … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Tip of the Week – Understanding and relationship management is an important part of complaint management

Outpatient fees and Private Medical Insurer Preauthorisation: A significant number of complaints come from patients who have exceeded their private medical insurer outpatient limit and then complain because they believe prices are not transparent. Where they know what will happen in an outpatient appointment they can preauthorise the visit with their insurer in advance. However, … Continue reading Turning Complaints into Insights: ISCAS Tip of the Week – Outpatient fees and Private Medical Insurer Preauthorisation

Over the past 15 years, ISCAS—the primary independent adjudicator for private patient complaints—has reviewed thousands of cases. From these, we’ve developed practical Hints and Tips for healthcare organisations, helping turn complaints into actionable learning.