[Dentistry and healthcare legislation 10. The law governing complaints: readily accessible filing procedures].

The law promises patients a readily accessible means of filing complaints. Healthcare providers are therefore required to adopt regulations governing complaints which satisfy a number of conditions. Most dentists choose to adopt the regulations which have been established by their professional organization. In addition to handling complaints, there is also a provision for mediation, which is often used by patients. Mediation appears, then, to be a successful provision. Many complaints have their origin in insufficient knowledge of healthcare legislation and patients' rights legislation. This demonstrates that more attention should be given to these subjects in educational programmes and programmes in continuing education. The present law governing complaints is expected to be replaced this year by a new, more comprehensive law in which considerable attention will be devoted to the quality of care as well as to complaints. It seems likely, however, that the new law governing complaints will damage the effective manner in which patients' complaints are dealt with in dentistry today.