In Focus: Complaint mediation

A rise in complaints reported to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) might not immediately sound like a good thing, but head of the mediator, Jennie Jones told Optician that it was.

‘This for us is very much a positive, which sounds somewhat strange when you’re talking about complaints,’ she said.

An increase of 113 enquiries, as detailed in the OCCS’ 2019–2020 annual report, took its total to 1,611 – an 8% increase on the previous year, despite receiving fewer complaints in March because of the pandemic.

Jones explained to Optician that this increase could be attributed to practices making patients aware of the service and the General Optical Council’s remodelling of the fitness to practise triage process.