Making a complaint
All the staff at the surgery aim to ensure that the care we give you is of the highest standard, but we know that occasionally things do not reach that standard. We are extremely sorry that something has happened to make you dissatisfied with our care, and would like to do all we can to resolve that problem as quickly as possible. We are grateful to you for bringing the issue to our attention, and hope that we can deal with it as quickly as possible.
If you wish to complain, please contact the Practice Manager, Nikki Lucas, either in person, by phone or in writing. She is always available to assist you in this matter.
Your concerns will then be discussed with the Complaints Manager for the practice, who is Dr Caroline Brown, or one of the other doctors in Dr Brown’s absence. Dr Brown or Nikki will contact you to acknowledge and discuss your complaint as soon as possible, ideally the same day but definitely within 3 working days. We will then explain to you what we will do next to investigate your concerns fully.
The NHS Complaints Procedure requires all complaints to be made within 12 months of the event concerned.
What we will do next
We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days. The Complaints Manager will then investigate your complaint fully. This will involve meeting with all the members of staff involved, discussing your concerns and looking at what happened and why. We will aim to have investigated your concern within 10 working days, and will then contact you again. In some situations this will be by letter detailing our investigation and response to it, including the changes we have made as a result of this. In other situations, we will invite you to meet with us to discuss your complaint in more detail. This may be a meeting with the Complaints Manager, the Practice Manager, and sometimes with other members of the team who have been involved in your complaint. If for any reason it is likely to take us more than 10 working days to investigate your complaint, we will let you know about this as quickly as possible, and keep you informed of our progress regularly.
When we investigate a complaint we always aim to find out what happened and why. We aim to learn from all complaints as an organisation, and make sure we change our systems to ensure the problem does not happen again. This process usually involves all members of the team meeting together to learn from your complaint. At the end of this process we will send you a formal written report detailing our investigation and conclusions.
Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (for example social services or a hospital) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one co-ordinated reply. We may need your consent to do so, and may seek your consent if we feel another organisation should be involved.
Making a complaint on behalf of someone else
When dealing with a complaint, we still need to maintain confidentiality about people’s medical care. Therefore if you wish to complain on behalf of someone else, we will need to have that person’s consent for you to complain on their behalf, and their consent for us to communicate with you about this matter. This consent needs the patient’s name and address, the details of the person making the complaint, and a signed and dated consent from the patient stating ‘I consent to my Doctor discussing my care and medical records with, and releasing information to, the person named below, and I wish this person to complain on my behalf.’ If it is easier, the Practice Manager has a consent form that you can use for this purpose.
Where the patient is unable to provide consent due to illness, accident or death, we will still try to deal with your complaint if at all possible. We would be grateful if you would let us have the specific details in that situation when you complain. In some situations we may still need to correspond with the named patient, depending on the authority they have given us.
If you are still not satisfied
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you have the right to approach:
The Health Service Ombudsman
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW19 4QP
Tel: 0345 0154033
POhWER for help and advice:
POhWER NHS Complaints Advocacy Service
0300 4562370 www.pohwer.net
The Area Team of the National Commissioning Board, or NHS England:
NHS Commissioning Board
PO Box 16738
Redditch B97 9PT
Patients Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
PALS can be contacted by calling:
0800 028 3693 or 0115 8839570
or by email:
or view their website:
Patient Experience and Complaints – NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB
or via post at:-
Patient Experience Team, Civic Centre, Arnot Hill Park, Nottingham Road, Arnold, Nottingham, NG5 6LU