Patient Complaint, concern or compliments
If you have a complaint, concern or compliments about the service you have received from the team working at this practice, please let us know. We operate a Practice Complaint Procedure as part of an NHS complaint system, which meets national criteria.
How to Complain
We hope that we can sort most problems out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If you wish to make a formal complaint, please do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE ideally within a matter of a few days. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If doing that is not possible your complaint should be submitted within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.
You should address your complaint:
In person – ask to speak to the Business Manager.
In writing – some complaints may be easier to explain in writing, please give as much information as you can, then send your complaint to the practice for the attention of the Business manager (you can use the attached form). The Business Manager will make sure that they deal with your concerns promptly and in the correct way. You should be as specific and concise as possible.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
We keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality (a separate leaflet giving more detail on confidentiality is available on request). If you are not the patient, but are complaining on their behalf, you must have their permission to do so. An authority signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness or infirmity) of providing this.
What we will do:
We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to carry out a full investigation as soon as possible. If we expect our investigation to take some time, we will explain the reason for the delay and tell you when we expect to finish. When we investigate your complaint, we will:
Investigate the circumstances, make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, make sure you receive an apology if this is appropriate, and take the necessary steps to make sure any problem(s) do not arise again.
Taking it further
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best change of putting right whatever has gone wrong and the opportunity to improve our practice. However, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the way we are dealing with your complaint, you may refer the matter to:
By Post:
NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
Electronically:
england.contactus@nhs.net – please write “For the attention of the Complaints Manager in the subject line.
By Telephone:
0300 311 2233 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm except Wednesdays when open at 9.30am, excluding Bank Holidays