Patients are finding more reasons and ways to complain about high street services and optical practices must be ready to fight their own corner.
An annual update by the Optical Complaints Service (OCCS) showed it received 969 enquiries in the 12 months before March 2016, representing a 55.8% increase on 2014-15 activity.
Law firm Nockolds Solicitors was appointed by the GOC to run its independent mediation service for patient complaints nearly two years ago. As part of the contract it takes consumer complaints via telephone calls, emails, letters and newly introduced online complaint forms.
Among the most common themes of complaint about the profession have included the quality of optical products and customer service, according to its expansive annual report. There was also an 88% increase in practitioner contacts, the OCCS said.
Jennie Jones, head of OCCS, said: ‘On the surface, an increase in calls to a complaints service may seem negative. But in fact most of these extra enquiries are from practitioners, not consumers, marking a positive trend in the pursuit of proper complaint handling for better customer service across the board.
‘Nobody naturally enjoys listening to their customers complain, but if they are handled in the right way, evidence suggests that complaints can have a beneficial impact on both the performance and profitability of a business. Better communication with, and use of, the OCCS marks a turning point for the entire industry.’
Meanwhile, the GOC has been forced to up its game in dealing with disciplinary matters of a serious nature – embarking on a wholesale review of its fitness to practise process.
The nature of the complaint
In half of the cases filed by the OCCS, patients contacted the service before lodging their grievance with the practice involved. Indeed, there was a 20% rise in customers and practitioners going straight to the OCCS, attributed to increased awareness of the service, media coverage of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and higher numbers of practitioner enquiries as a whole.
Nearly all, 98.6 % of the enquiries, were resolved by the OCCS.
More than half of the enquiries received were complaints about the quality of the care service received or the products purchased. The most common circumstances in this category of complaint were varifocal adjustment and intolerance, the prescription and the eye examination and difficulties when a consumer purchases glasses or lenses from a practice using a prescription from another practice.
While 35% of complaints arose from ‘customer service dissatisfaction’ – with patients perceiving a practitioner’s reluctance to address and resolve their concerns – this was a reduction of 4% compared to the prior year.
Seven per cent of complaints involved fee or cost issues on the high street, the OCCS reported, including promotional offer terms and conditions or additional unforeseen charges.
‘The increase is largely attributable to refund processes relating to one [unnamed] supplier,’ it added. ‘During the course of the year, we have worked closely to address this issue.’
The OCCS complaints mediation team handled over 4,700 telephone calls during the past 12 months and sent out 625 emails and letters each month.
It was found that the general public’s most common method of complaining was through an online search for the OCCS, although a quarter were told about the service by their practitioner. There had also been a 10% increase in the number of consumers referred to the OCCS by the GOC and its fitness to practise team.
Resolutions included supplying replacement products, re-examination, a review by independent practice, apology or refund.
Deeper trends
Further analysis of the complaint trends by the OCCS also found no significant variation in the nature of complaints from the multiple and the independent areas of the sector – with customer service a challenge for both.
Nevertheless, while complaints concerning care and service arrived in roughly equal measure from multiples, joint ventures and independents, complaints about charges and fees were 13% more prevalent at multiples.
During 2015-16 it saw complaints involving contact lenses double from 27 to 54, but this number still remained very low given the size of the contact lens market. Circumstances included payment plans, validity of contact lens specifications and fitting, and the OCCS was planning to discuss fees and charges with the BCLA and ACLM.
The OCCS also noted that optical patients were likely to complain once their relationship with a practitioner had deteriorated. The sector was exposed by its very nature – with prescribing and dispensing bespoke for each customer, often with a high cost purchase and an overlap between NHS and self-funding. Good communication was key, stressed the OCCS.
In terms of location, 89% of complaints were from England, with 6% from Scotland, 2% from Wales and 0.5% from Northern Ireland. Despite offering GOS eye examinations across all age groups, Scotland had a higher number of concerns regarding charges and fees than any other UK nation.
Laborious complaints process
Also discussed during last month’s quarterly GOC meeting was the regulator’s draft strategy to deal with fitness to practise complaints more quickly and effectively.
Its ongoing project was being guided by the principle that patients, the public and registrants expect complaints to be progressed efficiently, but that ‘the quality of the investigations is not compromised in favour of speed’.
The new Fitness to Practise 2013 rules took effect on April 1 2014, with provisions made for the introduction of case examiners and the registrar’s direct referral powers.
However, the draft strategy currently being worked on includes the mapping of the FTP process.
The GOC stated: ‘Our analysis of the various work streams suggests that the main issues we should focus on relate to inefficiencies within our processes. Our processes are overly laborious, time consuming and inflexible. This suggests that we should be proactive in seeking to change these elements of the process to reduce the delays they inevitably cause.’
Indeed, consultancy KPMG was engaged in December last year to map the key stages of the fitness to practise process, helping the GOC to reduce its median time for cases to be progressed through to a final FTP hearing from 104 weeks to 82 weeks.
Although GOC complaint levels had been rising between April 2012 and March 2015, the regulator saw a reduction in FTP complaints by 12% in 2015-16, from 388 to 343. This compared to a 48% increase in new cases the prior year.
The majority of the most serious FTP cases, which eventually lead to a sanction, generally related to personal conduct issues, a GOC spokesperson said, often with criminal convictions. Personal conduct, clinical issues, spectacle prescription and convictions were among the most common type of complaint the GOC received.
While consumer grievances about high street services can be a threat to business, the threat of erasure, suspension or fines can be deeply troubling for practitioners – meaning the GOC must be acutely focused on streamlining its disciplinary process.
Its spokesperson added: ‘Our strategy for handling complaints focuses on ensuring that we progress cases as efficiently as possible while not compromising the quality of our investigations. We are also endeavouring to improve customer care so as to minimise the stress that the process can place on registrants, patients and the public.’
‘And another thing...’
The six most commonly referred complaints to the OCCS
- Concerns regarding accuracy of prescription
- Varifocal/progressive lenses
- Laser eye surgery outcomes and complaints
- Dispensing concerns
- Prescription dispensed by another practice
- Contact lens-related complaints
‘Here, let me help...’
Five ways to deal with complaints
- Understand the root cause of the complaint. This may not be the initial reason given by the consumer
- Listen to the consumer and the practitioners. Both parties must feel their concerns have been heard and recognised to allow the complaint to move forward
- Help both to communicate their position in a way which is understood
- Explore what each considers to be an acceptable outcome
- Establish a clear resolution with the requirements on each party set out, with timescales
(Advice sourced from the OCCS)