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The vast majority of patients are usually completely satisfied with their medical care and are grateful to their doctor. However, in some cases, problems can occur, and you need to know what steps you can take if you are unhappy or dissatisfied with the outcome of your treatment.

In the first instance, you should try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Talk to the doctor or the hospital administration to try and settle matters at the earliest, especially with regard to minor complaints ( such as rude staff, telephone calls not being returned or unpalatable hospital food). Most complaints originate due to seemingly trivial problems.

If however, if you have a serious complaint about your medical care, and if you are convinced that your doctor has been negligent, you can take appropriate action. However, do remember that just because the outcome has not been satisfactory ( for example, a patient dies during surgery) , it does not necessarily mean that the doctor has been negligent or irresponsible! There are many reasons why patients do not do as well as expected; after all, medicine is an inexact science which deals with many biological variables that are beyond anyone's control. Consequently, in spite of the best care, a patient may die or his condition may become worse.

There are many avenues open to you to get redressal, and you may choose any or all of them. For instance, you can make a complaint to the local professional medical body, usually the state medical council. The appropriate medical council can punish the doctor: for example, by removing his name from the medical register, if he has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct, either permanently, or for a specified period, so that he can no longer practice medicine.

Before taking legal action, you should carefully consider all the implications and repercussions. The process can be a very long and expensive one. You must also ascertain precisely what you want to achieve by initiating litigation. Do you merely want an apology from the doctor? Are you angry with the doctor because you feel he was careless and you want to seek revenge? Do you want to expose the doctor's incompetence to the public to protect other patients? Do you want monetary compensation? While all or any of these objectives may provide sufficient reason to go to court, do remember that medical malpractice lawsuits are powerful double-edged weapons which should be used only as a last resort. Not only can such lawsuits damage a good doctor's reputation, they can also create a lot of tension between patients and doctors in general. Let me point out, in this context, that unnecessary and excessive medical litigation has led to the regrettable situation in which American medicine finds itself today, in which both doctors and patients have become losers.

It's true that both doctors and patients are under enormous pressure these days. Patients have very high expectations from their doctors and expect an instant diagnosis; low costs; and efficient treatment. Doctors are finding it hard to meet these unrealistic expectations, with the result that both patients and doctors are getting increasingly unhappy with the status quo.

One of the commonest complaints patients have is that doctors make them wait for ever and ever, for no good reason. It is true that some doctors are very disrespectful of their patient's time; while others just have poor time management skills. It's also true that the reason some doctors are so super-busy is because so many patients flock to them. If you select such a doctor, you should expect to have to wait ! Remember that you always have a choice - if you are not happy about waiting, you should be happy to go to another doctor ( who may be as good, but may not have such a high profile brand name !)

Rather than complaining ( which doesn't really help anyone !), what can you do to help ?

1. Reframe your expectations. Understand that the doctor is human; he is doing his best; he does have other patients to see; and that complications can occur. Give him the benefit of the doubt and be charitable. Rather than get angry, you should admire how hard he works ! And while waiting, rather than losing your temper, you can use your waiting time productively
( perhaps by reading more about your medical treatment options !)

2. Make more effective use of your doctor's precious time. Try to do your homework before you see the doctor, so he does not have to waste time explaining the basics to you. If you can learn about this online, prior to your visit, you can improve the quality of the questions you ask your doctor - and thus, the quality of his answers as well !

Rather than be a complainer and a blamer, try being a fixer - remember that both you and your doctor are on the same side - yours !

As a boutique IVF clinic which provides highly personalized care to infertile couples in a comfortable setting, we take great pride in our customer service. We pamper our patients and do our best to keep them happy. While the outcome of any IVF cycle is always uncertain, we do our best to make sure the process is as stress-free as possible. We do this by listening carefully to our patients and involving them actively in their treatment by educating them and sharing information with them.

However, there will always be some patients who are unhappy with us and who have complaints about us. I guess this is inevitable when we do over 400 IVF cycles every year. Not all IVF cycles are going to be successful – and patients who have failed IVF cycles are often likely to be unhappy and discontented.

The IVF doctor is often a soft target for complaints by unhappy patients and this is something every doctor needs to come to terms with.

Now, many doctors simply don’t care. They brush off patient’s complaints or ignore them. They allow their juniors to deal with angry or unhappy patients – and many will refuse to even acknowledge the patient’s angst and unhappiness. They feel if a patient is unhappy with them, the patient should go somewhere else , their approach being – Good riddance to bad rubbish ! After all, there are lots of other patients out there, aren’t they ?

Because we are a boutique clinic, we treat each complaint with respect. I feel that every complaint is a gift – and do our best to learn from it, so we can prevent problems from recurring. Now I know it’s not possible to keep all patients happy all the time – but we do try to do our best.


We make it a point to listen respectfully to all our patients – and if they have a problem, I encourage them to talk to me, so I can help fix the problem ! This is why it hurts so much when patients make false allegations and complaints about us on websites. Thanks to online bulletin boards and online doctor grading sites , it’s now very easy for any disgruntled patient to make any allegation about any doctor - even if there is not an iota of truth in this ! A doctor is a soft target and it’s easy for a patient to harm a lifetime’s professional reputation by a false complaint . Unfortunately, not all websites bother to check the authenticity or reliability of these complaints , which means that even if I have 999 happy patients, 1 unhappy patient can spoil my digital reputation.

Ideally, webmasters should realise how fragile a doctor’s reputation is and how much it means to him. Complaints against a doctor should first be emailed to the doctor, who should be given a chance to provide an rebuttal. This is a basic principle of natural justice ! Only when this is done, should the complaint be published, if it still deserves to see the light of day. If not, then unethical doctors can post ( or get their cronies to post) false complaints about other clinics who are in competition with them – and this can set off a slinging match which harms everyone.

Allowing the online publication of unmoderated complaints about doctors without giving a doctor a chance to protect himself is a low blow against doctors and will strike another nail in the fragile doctor-patient relationship. Doctors will start seeing all patients as possible complainers – leading to an unhappy and adversarial relationship, and hurting both doctors and patients !
Patients need to provide feedback about their doctors – both good and bad ! However, this should be done in a healthy fashion, so that everyone benefits from this feedback !