Establishment of a patient Ombudsman scheme

Abstract

Meeting with health services patients may be in need of support, especially to initiate a complaint, to choose which route then to follow, and deciding when and how to act to have a case investigated. The question dealt with is what are and should be the basic and key elements, building a functional patient ombudsman scheme that aims to protect and support patients. Some important elements are indentified: The objective of the scheme should be twofold: concern legal rights, interests, and needs to support individuals, and quality to aid patients as a group. The scheme has to be based on law and on a culture among health personnel where the ombudsman is accepted as a relevant institution. To serve many individual patients, also in a flexible and an informal way, the scheme may have an advantage being localized regionally and/or locally. Assisting the individuals the best way, the ombudsman in addition to giving information, guidance, and advice ought to have as part of his tasks executing examinations and investigations, making statements, and representing patients lodging complaints to relevant authorities. To carry out this, the ombudsman must have the right to have information disclosed by the health-care services; work independently and autonomously, not having double roles; and be staffed with both lawyers and health personnel. As to quality improvement, a scheme that (also) has a central and coordinating body may have more legitimacy and can regularly make better use of accumulated countrywide knowledge than local/regional arrangements.