Patient Complaint Information

DORDON & POLESWORTH GROUP PRACTICE

PATIENT COMPLAINTS INFORMATION LEAFLET

Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff members 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.

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 – 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

All complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager. Complaints may be made in person ask to speak to the Practice Manager; you may be offered an appointment to see her if she is not available at the time, or in writing addressed to the Practice Manager. The Practice Manager will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

Action Upon Receipt Of A Complaint

Verbal complaints will be acknowledged by the Practice Manager at the time of discussion. Written complaints will be acknowledged in writing within three working days, where that is not possible, as soon as reasonably practicable.

The practice aims to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the person/persons involved. 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

Review of Practice Complaints

A full review of all complaints is carried out annually to identify any trends or additional actions/learning points.

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.

Where the patient is a child the practice may receive the complaint from:

  •      Either parent , in the absence of both parents, the guardian who has care of the child
  •      person authorised by a local authority whose care the child has been committed under the provisions of the Children Act 1989

Complaining To Ombudsman

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. But this does not affect your right to approach the parliamentary and Health Ombudsman, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. The contact details are:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Millbank Tower

Millbank

London

SW1P 4QP

Tel: 0345 015 4033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

 

You may also approach Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) who provide confidential advice and support, helping you to sort out any concerns you may have about the care we provide, guiding you through the different services available from the NHS.  PALS contact details are:

 

Patient Advice and Liaison Service

Warwickshire Primary Care Trust

Westgate House

Market Street

Warwick

CV34 4DG

Tel: 01926 493 491