If you have a complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in the practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our system meets national criteria.
How to Complain
You should normally make a complaint within twelve months of the event, or within twelve months of becoming aware that you have something to complain about. However, these time limits may be waived if there are good reasons why you could not complain earlier and if we are still able to investigate the complaint fairly and effectively in spite of the delay.
Complaints can be made in writing to the practice manager, Ms Crystal Short, via email at: [email protected].
What We Will Do
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days either orally or in writing and will offer to discuss the matter with you.
We will offer you a meeting with the practice manager, Ms Crystal Short, to agree a timeframe for resolution and to reach an agreement with you on how you wish the complaint to be handled and the likely period for completion of the investigation and response to you. If you would prefer not to accept the offer of a discussion, we will determine a specified response period and notify you in writing of that period.
We will aim to investigate and deal with all complaints efficiently and speedily. We will send you a written response with a report on the investigation as soon as reasonably practicable. If we are not able to meet the response deadline we have agreed with you, we will contact you to advise why and negotiate another timescale.
All oral complaints will be recorded in writing by the practice and you will be provided with a copy of the written record.
When we look into your complaints, we will aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong
- Advise you what we will do to put the matter right
- Make sure you receive an apology where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve the services provided by our practice.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint at a local level you can ask the Ombudsman to independently review your case by writing to:
The Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Or email: [email protected]
Or phone: 0345 015 4033
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Although the practice would welcome the opportunity to investigate your complaint, you may prefer to choose to make your complaint to NHS England; details as follows:
Email: [email protected]
Contact Number: 0300 311 2233
Postal address:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT
Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A letter signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.