Healthcare complaints handling systems: a comparison between Britain, Australia and Taiwan

This paper explores the health care complaints handling reforms enacted in Britain, Australia and Taiwan. A documentary search for policy documents, reports and studies related to the reforms of the health care complaints handling system was conducted. A keyword search was performed within PubMed and ProQuest for the period 1985–2009 to identify relevant articles. The study found that the major difference in health care complaints handling systems between countries, is the mechanism for running a complaints system. Both Britain and Australia have attempted to incorporate patient complaints into their national quality systems. Their intention was to set up mechanisms to create an effective bridge, at a national policy level, between the patient complaints management system and the quality management system.