Complaints Procedure

It is the policy of our practice to give an effective, prompt and positive response to all complaints from patients and to ensure that such complaints assist the practice to improve its service in the future.

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.

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. 

Complaints should be addressed to Mrs Lorna Nicholas our Practice Manager. We request that all complaints are written so as to ensure that all the facts are correct, this can either be by completing a complaint form which is available to collect at reception or by sending a letter.

We would like you to be as specific as possible about your complaint.

What will the practice do?

We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to respond to you within 10 working days. If we expect it to take longer, we will explain the reason for the delay and when we expect to finish our investigation.  

When reviewing 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.
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

We also review all complaints at our designated significant event meetings. These are held every quarter with our main group of staff to discuss and improve patient safety and are used as a valuable tool to learn and develop from.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we are bound by strict rules regarding medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of somebody else then we have to know that you have their permission to do so. This should be provided by way of a signed note, unless incapable through illness of doing so.