Skip to content
Skip to main content
header search
ahihi OpenLearn
OpenLearn
Menu
sticky search

About this free course

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

Course content Course content
Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings
Improving patient, family and colleague witnesses’ experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

More free courses

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.’
Show description|Hide description

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.