Patients’ complaints not kept secret

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 4

Patients’ complaints not kept secret

PA Auckland The Medical Association will tell doctors the source of patients’ complaints, a spokesman for the association says. Dr Michael Cooper, the former fees complaints officer for the Auckland district, said that if the complainant then felt embarrassed about returning to their doctor, that was “their problem.” The daughter of a St Heliers superannuitant, who did not wish to be named in the newspaper or to her mother’s doctor, said she was shocked when she read that copies of a letter from Dr Cooper in reply to her complaint about a fee her mother was charged were also sent to the practice concerned. The woman claimed her mother was charged $3O for an ordinary consultation at the end of last

year and has since changed doctors. From January 1, general practitioners were expected to reduce their fees in line with increased Government subsidies, and a call to the doctor concerned showed that his fees were now $3O for adult patients aged up to 60 and $22 for a superannuitant. Dr Cooper’s letter in reply to the woman, dated January 26, said that her mother’s doctor “is free to charge any fee he wishes, just like every other selfemployed person in the community. On the other hand, your mother is free to go to any G.P. she wishes, including those whose fees are lower.” Dr Cooper, who finished his year as fees complaints officer about three weeks ago, said that doctors about whom complaints were received had to be told who made them

so that they could make an “intelligent reply.” He said most doctors varied their fees depending on how and what was involved in a consultation and the time it took, and would need to go to the patient’s file . to explain the charge. “It denies every principle of British justice to expect a doctor to make a statement in his defence, which is his right, without knowing all the facts,” Dr Cooper said. “If people want to make a complaint they have to be up front, not try to go through the back door. A patient’s version of a situation can be quite different from a doctor’s.” The chairman of the association, Dr Tony Baird, backed Dr Cooper’s comments, saying the policy had been agreed to by a previous Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, and the Health Department.