July 31st, 2025
The silver lining of complaints
Making a complaint is not easy: the process can be confusing, difficult to understand, and for some people, may affect their relationships with care providers.
Although making a complaint isn’t easy, it’s essential that we hear from patients, long-term care residents and caregivers about what’s not working if we are to achieve a health care system where everyone is treated fairly.
Our office has come to see the silver lining in complaints: a valuable source of insight that helps health care organizations learn and improve, and also allows patients, long-term care residents and caregivers to be heard so that the same experience doesn’t happen to someone else.
Patient Ombudsman Craig Thompson recently discussed what we can learn from complaints in a contribution to the University of Toronto Investigative Journalism Bureau. Read more about what he had to say about the silver lining of complaints.