We try to give the best service possible at all times, but there may be occasions when you feel you wish to express dissatisfaction.

We operate a Practice Complaints Procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our system meets national criteria. This Practice Procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability of compensation, but we hope you will use it to give us an opportunity of looking into, and if necessary, correcting any problems that may have arisen or mistakes that have been made.

Please see the Complaint Leaflet for more information.

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 problem 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 most 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 12 months of the incident that caused the problem
• within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.

You may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns.  She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.  It will be helpful 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 looked into your complaint within 20 working days of the date you raised it with us.  If we expect it to take longer we will explain the reason for the delay and tell you when we expect to finish.

When we look into 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 to do 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

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

We keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality.  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) of providing this.

Taking It Further

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.

However, if you remain dissatisfied with the outcome you may refer the matter to:

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

Tel: 0345 015 4033