Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria as published for England.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problems cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at the most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem: or
within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to Mr. A. Barclay or any of the doctors. It will be of great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to have investigated a written complaint within 10 working days from the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be able to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.

When we investigate your complaint, we shall aim to:

find out what happened and what went wrong

make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this

make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate

identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

hold a quarterly review of all complaints to see if we can learn from them.

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 must know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

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 our practice.

PALS – Patient Advice and Liaison Service

PALS is a confidential service providing information, advice and support to patients, their families and carers. PALS aims to help to resolve concerns quickly by finding answers to the questions or referring on to appropriate agents or specialist advocacy services. Their telephone number is 0800 032 0202.

ICAS – Independent Conciliatory Advisory Service
ICAS supports patients and their carers who wish to pursue a complaint about any NHS treatment or care. Their telephone number is 0808 802 3000

Health Service Ombudsman

If you still feel your complaint has not been resolved satisfactorily you can approach the Health Service Ombudsman on telephone number 0345 015 4033 or visit their website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/