Complaints

Complaints Procedure

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our Practice. However, we are aware that things can go wrong, resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint.

If you have any complaint or concern about the service you have received you will need to write in or you can make your complaint online using our Complaints Form. Your complaint should be addressed to the Practice Manager, at the Red House Surgery. All complaints will need to be reported to the surgery within 12 months of the event.

We operate an in-house complaints procedure to deal with your complaints. This procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability or compensation. In some cases you will be referred to the appropriate authority.

Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days of receipt and will be investigated thoroughly. You will receive a response to your complaint within 10-14 working days, although in some exceptional cases more time may be required.

Please note that the Practice must ensure strict adherence to the rule of medical confidentiality. We cannot provide medical information without the appropriate authority if you are not the patient in question.

A copy of our official complaint form is available from reception.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response to your complaint, you have the right to ask NHS England to review your case. You should do this within 12 months of the outcome of your complaint. They can be contacted as follows:

NHS England

•  PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
•  Tel:  0300 311 22 33
• Email: [email protected]

How do I raise a concern / informal complaint?

You can speak to any member of staff initially with your complaint. This gives you the opportunity to resolve any concern you may have without it going through a formal process.

Formal Complaint

• You may submit any comments via our online Complaints Form.  Alternatively you may write to us, our details can be found on our Contact Us page.

What we will do

We will contact you about your complaint within three working days.

If you feel you do not want to contact the surgery directly, then you can contact the NHS Complaints team on:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

If you are making a complaint please state: ‘For the attention of the complaints team’ in the subject line.

Procedure

We have a two stage complaints procedure. We will always try to deal with your complaint quickly however if it is clear that the matter will need a detailed investigation, we will notify you and then keep you updated on our progress.

Stage one – Early, local resolution

• We will try to resolve your complaint within five working days if possible.
• If you are dissatisfied with our response, you can ask us to escalate your complaint to Stage Two.

Stage Two – Investigation

• We will look at your complaint at this stage if you are dissatisfied with our response at Stage One.
• We also escalate some complaints straight to this stage, if it is clear that they are complex or need detailed investigation.
• We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and we will give you our decision as soon as possible. This will be no more that 20 working days unless there is clearly a good reason for needing more time to respond.

Take it Further

Complain to the Ombudsman

If, after receiving our final decision, you remain dissatisfied you may take your complaint to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS and free to use. It can help resolve your complaint, and tell the NHS how to put things right if it has got them wrong.

The Ombudsman only has legal powers to investigate certain complaints. You must have received a final response from the Practice before the Ombudsman can look at your complaint and it will generally not look into your complaint if it happened more than 12 months ago, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Address:

Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman
Tower 30
Millbank
London SW1P 4QP

Phone: 0345 015 4033

E: email the Ombudsman 

However, before considering taking this step, we hope you would let us know what aspect of the complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily and provide an opportunity for us to consider whether there is anything further that could be done locally to resolve matters.

Other organisations that can help you make a complaint about health services

Complaints Advocacy Service

POhWER is a charity that provides information, advocacy and independent advice across England.

They offer free direct and local support via Professionals and Volunteers. POhWER reaches individuals struggling with particular challenges in their lives, and help make their voices be heard. POhWER can support and empower you to express your views and concerns and access information and services where needed.

You can contact POhWER on 0300 456 2370 or visit www.pohwer.net.

Confidentiality

All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Where the investigation of the complaint requires consideration of the patient’s medical records, we will inform the patient or person acting on his/her behalf if the investigation will involve disclosure of information contained in those records to a person other than the Practice or an employee of the Practice.

We keep a record of all complaints and copies of all correspondence relating to complaints, but such records will be kept separate from patients’ medical records.

Statistics and reporting

The Practice must submit to the local primary care organisation periodically/at agreed intervals details of the number of complaints received and actioned.

Give feedback or make a complaint

You can complain to a member of staff at the NHS service you went to, such as a GP surgery or hospital, or you can complain to the organisation in charge.