SUGGESTIONS AND COMPLAINTS

We welcome your compliments, comments, concerns and your complaints as these help to improve our services to you and other patients.

When you want to say thank you

Staff appreciate it when patients, relatives or carers go out of their way to thank them for their efforts.  We keep a record of all compliments that are received.

If you have a comment or concern

We would like to hear from you if you have any suggestions about how we can improve or have a concern. A concern is often best dealt with when it arises and as a practice we would encourage you to first explain to a member of staff who knows you and the situation.  In many cases it should be possible to sort out the problem straight away by talking to staff or the Practice Manager.

We appreciate that sometimes there maybe occasions when you feel we may not meet the standards you expect and this leads to you making a complaint.

Making a complaint

We take complaints very seriously and they are treated in confidence.  We aim to resolve complaints quickly and fairly and will try to sort any mistake or misunderstanding straight away.

It is helpful if you make your complaints as soon as possible.  This will help us to investigate the issue effectively.  The period of time where we can investigate is:-

• Within 12 months of the event or
• Within 12 months of you realising that you have something to complain about.

Complaints are not kept in your records and will not affect ongoing or future treatment in any way.

If you are complaining or raising a concern on behalf of someone else, they will need to give their consent for us to share personal information with you.

It is important to be clear about what aspect of care has caused your complaint.  Be specific and think about what you want to achieve.  It will help us if you provide your full contact details including a daytime telephone number.

What happens when you make a complaint?

• We will try to contact you to talk about your complaint or we will write to you to acknowledge its receipt.  This is usually within 3 working days and excludes bank holidays.
• We will discuss whether you would like to arrange a meeting to discuss the issues
• We will discuss who would be most appropriate person to respond to you and how this will occur.  This may be in letter, an action plan, or a meeting.
• We will provide you with an explanation of the points that you have raised, details of what we have found out and what we will be doing to put things right. If there are some points that we do not agree with you will be given the reasons for this.  We would aim to respond to your complaint within 15 working days unless we have agreed a date with you.

If you feel you cannot bring your issues to the attention of the practice you could also contact:

British Sign Language Video

Click here to watch the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman video using British Sign Language giving tips on making a complaint to the NHS in England including where to get advice and support.

NHS England

PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

By telephone 0300 311 22 33 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, excluding Bank Holidays)

Email england.contactus@nhs.net With ‘For the attention of the complaints manager’ in the subject line.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

If the practice has had the opportunity to address all of you concerns you remain dissatisfied you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review your complaint.  The Ombudsman will only investigate a complaint if all attempts to resolve the concerns locally have been exhausted.

The Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Telephone:  0345 0154 033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

Care Quality Commission

The CQC is responsible for checking that every care provider that is registered with them meets important standards of quality and safety. However, the duties that they been given by Parliament do not include dealing with individual complaints about providers’ services.
If you have concerns that we are not meeting the CQC standards on the care you have received, you can speak to the CQC on 03000 616161.