Summary in English

In the grant letter from the Ministry of Health and Care Services to the county governors for 2022–2023, all of the country’s county governors were tasked with obtaining information about how the municipalities, being the first point of contact, deal with complaints about decisions regarding health and care services. The work was managed by The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision, which has collected and systematised the results.

The purpose of the information gathering is to uncover any areas in need of improvement in how the municipalities handle complaints, with the aim of ensuring due process for patients and users. 

The data was collected through a self-assessment questionnaire which municipalities completed. A total of 297 out of 370 municipalities/districts completed the questionnaire, which is a response rate of 80%.

Highlighted main findings:

• Taking into account that there are uncertainties about the ratio of complaints and outcomes in appeal cases, we see that the number of complaints is low in relation to the number of decisions regarding health and care services. No major differences between counties were observed in the proportion of complaints.
• Nearly 90% of the municipalities have systems to keep track of complaints.
• Just over half of the municipalities have internal deadlines for complaint handling.
• For around 80% of the processed complaints, the processing time was less than three months.
• In some municipalities, there were complaints for which processing times were longer than six months. Commonly stated reasons for longer processing times included that the municipality waited for clarification from a general practitioner or other authorities, a large number of pending cases, and/or insufficient resources/positions available for case processing.
• Over 80% of the municipalities have procedures in place to inform complainants about the complaint handling process.
• Over 90% of the municipalities provide guidance on the right to complain.
• More than 80% of the municipalities provide vulnerable groups with targeted information on the right to complain.
• More than 80% of the municipalities have procedures in place to provide assistance in filing a complaint.
• About 2/3 of the municipalities have procedures for accepting verbal complaints.
• About 2/3 of the municipalities have procedures for assessing the child’s best interests in complaint cases that directly or indirectly affect children.

When some municipalities do not have the above systems and/or procedures, it can be an indication of increased risk in the municipality’s handling of complaints.