2 How easy is it to raise a concern?

Our research participants had mixed experiences. Some found it difficult to raise a concern. A General Optical Council (GOC) patient witness said the following:

The quote reads: ‘OK, so, and this is probably very relevant. So when I was looking to see who I should contact to raise a complaint, there was the GOC and the, is the Optometric? There were two main organisations. And it was difficult for me to understand who I should go to and which particular aspect, because of the wide-ranging concern that I had. And it was trying to see how best I could achieve some action and what I was looking to achieve was actually somebody acknowledging that this process had failed. And then going to the GOC website, and it took me quite a while to read through it to understand how or if I should apply if that was the right process to follow, so it wasn’t very clear to a layperson. I asked my optician, she said well you should go to the GOC. But yeah it’s a bit of a maze to a layperson.’

Others found the process to be straightforward. However, this seemed to depend on the individual and the regulator. As most people used regulator websites to raise a concern, we also looked at how easy it was to use these.

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OpenLearn - Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings
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