Study visit on Complaint Mechanisms in Ankara, Turkey

At the request of the Ministry of Health the AQH project supported a group of 8 participants to attend a study visit on Complaint Mechanisms from 25-28^th of April 2017 in Ankara, Turkey. The participants were: Deputy Minister of MoH, Adviser in MoH, 2 representatives from Department of telephone line for citizen complaints (MoH), 1 representative from Division for Rights of the Citizens to Healthcare (MoH), 1 representative from Health Inspectorate (MoH), 1 representative from “Patients’ Rights Association in Kosovo” (PRAK) and 2 representatives from AQH project.

During the visit the participants had meetings with the Ministry of Health Communication Centre (SABIM), Central Appointment System (MHRS) and Patient Rights Units and these meetings provided opportunities to discuss and learn about

• Receipt of complaints (procedures);
• Criteria for recording the complaint;
• Complaint’s recording and management;
• Issues concerning the complaint’s submitter anonymity;
• Types of complaints and how they are addressed;
• How to manage the situation when dealing with people with mental disorders;
• How is provided a feed-back information to complaint submitter;
• Exchange of information about the increase of reliability of the citizen to use the helpline;
• Cooperation with other governmental actors;
• Complaints mechanisms in secondary level.

The information gained in this study visit will help MoH to better plan necessary interventions related to the citizen complaints in health services. This experience will especially be beneficial to representatives who manage the telephone line for citizen complaints in health service, Division for Rights of the Citizens to Healthcare and Health Inspectorate in their daily work. The information and experience gained during this visit will also guide AQH project to better plan actions and type of support that can be provided to Division for Rights of the Citizens to Healthcare within MoH.

• Presentation- Ministry of Health Communication Centre (SABIM) in Turkey (This presentation is only in English).