UK Government To Set Up Online Feedback For Public Services
from the A++++-gr8-doctor!!! dept
While some American doctors are taking steps to try and prevent their patients from reviewing them online, the British government says that it will soon open up a feedback system for people there to review doctors in the country's National Health System. Not surprisingly, a doctors' trade body has taken exception to the plan, saying it "could reduce NHS care to a meaningless popularity contest, encouraging perverse behaviours and an emphasis on the superficial." Perhaps that's true, but it could also put pressure on doctors to be more responsive to patients and pay more attention to how they treat them. The move is part of a wider effort to open up all sorts of public services in the UK to public feedback, rating service providers like police, schools and childcare providers. The value of the feedback when people don't have any choice in provider -- such as police -- may be debatable, but it could prove to be a useful tool to help encourage improvement.
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Filed Under: feedback, government, uk
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When you work in an industry that quite literally allows you get away with murder, suddenly having the spotlight on your competency must be very frightening.
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Does anyone really think the NHS cares about their patients?
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If not, maybe you have some links to a story about a non-experimental, reasonably priced drug that was universally refused on the grounds of cost alone? That would make an interesting read if it's from a reputable source (i.e. not the Daily Mail).
Anyway, this is a good step forward though I have no doubt it will be abused. At the very least it gives me some ammo against the drooling idiots on other sites who try to claim that Europeans can't choose their doctor or other such nonsense because of the "horrors" of their "socialised" system.
I had a bad experience once in the NHS with my GP (family doctor). I changed doctors. Never had a problem since, though it would be nice to be able to make a choice based on a greater level of available information. Either way, I get far more healthcare value for money than the Americans I know.
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But...
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Negative feedback on your noggin
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Public review of doctors
I had a dentist (for about three visits total) who was both incompetent and "milking" the system. I found out he is incompetent when I went to another dentist, who Xrayed, then immediately sent me to someone else to repair the damage.
However, when I expressed anger, I was told in no uncertain terms (though not in these exact words) that the Dental Association (or whatever it is called) would pound me into a knothole unless I shut up - the only thing my dentist recommended was "don't go back".
In order to even get dental treatment, I swallowed my losses, pain, and suffering. I still have a dentist (another one, of course), I beleive, as a consequence of my keeping quiet.
I still think this is just WRONG, and my present dentist agrees - he just doesn't want to buck the Dental Association, and doesn't want me to, either - he doesn't "want to lose me".
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When is the dental ratings site up?
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