Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is Scotland’s Ombudsman. It is the final stage for complaints about councils, the National Health Service, housing associations, colleges and universities, prisons, most water and sewerage providers, the Scottish Government and its agencies and departments and most Scottish authorities.

The responsibilities of the SPSO include investigating and reporting on complaints around maladministration, failure to provide a service or failure in a service by NHS organisations and any organisation providing NHS services which has caused injustice or hardship to a member of the public.

The GMC and the SPSO regularly interact for the purposes of exchanging information and co-ordinating activity, if the SPSO wishes to bring specific concerns to the GMC's attention or if the GMC wishes to bring specific concerns to the attention of the SPSO.

Areas of information sharing may include:

• External communication issues
• Referring issues

or

• Investigations and inquiries relevant to both bodies’ functions.

This agreement has been in place since February 2011.