Mediation for Public and Healthcare Services
Mediation can be a very effective way of enabling public services to resolve disputes involving staff, service users and patients. Pressures on public services such as budget cuts and increased workloads can contribute to stress and lead to workplace disputes. Mediation is an effective way to addresses these issues, rebuild relationships at work and avoid damaging disputes from escalating into protracted grievances or employment tribunal proceedings. These issues can include disputes in both primary and secondary care teams, as well as disputes between GP partners.
You can find more information on mediation in workplace and employment disputes here
Disputes involving service users
Mediation provides both public services effective way to address complaints and disputes. Mediation provides a confidential and neutral environment which can help services and customers to rebuild damaged relationships. This can be particularly helpful in disputes involving services such as housing, social services and education where the organisation is likely to have a long-term relationship with the customer or service user.
Housing
Mediation can work well in housing as it focuses on the real interests and needs of landlords, tenants and families. Mediation can produce more effective solutions than litigation because the solutions are developed by the parties and so people are more committed to them than ones imposed by a court. A mediator facilitated discussion can help to address issues of behaviour by tenants or misunderstandings based on a person’s disability. Mediation can work for both local authority landlords and housing associations and can achieve positive outcomes more quickly than a long and expensive court case.
Healthcare
Disputes and complaints involving healthcare staff have risen in recent years as pressures on services have increased. These complaints can take up significant amounts of the time of clinical and other staff who may feel aggrieved at having to deal with a complaint. Equally, patients and their families may feel that they have not received the care they wanted or that healthcare staff did not treat them in a polite and appropriate manner.
Mediation can be an effective way to deal with these complaints by enabling all parties to share their concerns and views in a confidential environment and to work towards a better understanding and resolution. Mediation could help to reduce the stress of dealing with a complaint and provide a fast and effective route forward. Mediating can enable healthcare providers, patients and families to rebuild damaged relationships and develop ways to minimise future disputes. Simon Robinson has a good understanding of the healthcare sector and has worked with both healthcare providers and patients.
