Suggestions, Comments, and Complaints
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 a National Health Service system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.
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 a few weeks, this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please contact the practice with details of your complaint within one year of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager, Lauren Goodchild or any of the doctors. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with Lauren Goodchild order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you, and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly by agreeing a plan of action about how the complaint will be investigated, who will be involved, what expectations you have, and a timescale for a response. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
What we shall do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days. 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 this.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
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 note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.
Complaining to NHS Anglia or NHS England
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. This does not affect your right to approach NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us. You should contact the Complaints Manager:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
Telephone: 0300 311 2233
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
You may also contact a statutory body known as POhWER, which provides help and support to patients and carers when they have a complaint about NHS treatment. Contact details are:
POhWER
PO Box 14043
Birmingham
B6 9BL.
Telephone: 0300 456 2370
Email: pohwer@pohwer.net
You may also contact the Care Quality Commission with your concerns. Their contact details are:
Telephone number: 03000 616161
Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk
If you remain unhappy with our investigation, you may ask for an independent review by contacting:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for England
Millbank Tower
Millbank, London
SW1P 4QP
Helpline number: 0345 015 4033