Complaints

Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a concern or complaint about the services that you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.  We have a procedure that meets national criteria for complaints in general practice.

How to complain:

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time that 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 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or
• Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.

Written complaints should always be addressed to Janet Ashby our Practice Manager or any of the partners.  Alternatively you may ask for an appointment with Linda Croad, Reception Manager to discuss your concerns.  She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly.  It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint. 

What we shall do:

We shall aim to acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim 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 people 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

•  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 his or her permission to do so.  A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) in providing this. 

If at any stage there is a need to disclose information in those records to a person other than the doctor, partner, deputy or employee of the doctor the General Manager will notify the patient as is necessary.

NHS complaints procedure:

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 NHS Bournemouth and Poole if you feel you cannot raise the complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.  Please address such complaints to:

Complaints Manager, NHS Bournemouth and Poole, Canford House, Discovery Court Business Centre,551-553 Wallisdown Road, Poole, BH12 5AG.

If after complaining to either the practice or NHS Bournemouth & Poole, you are still not satisfied that your complaint has been resolved satisfactorily, you may take your complaint to a second stage review by contacting:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QP. Telephone 0345 015 4033, Email : phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk  Website:  http://www.ombudsman.org.uk

Referring a Doctor to the General Medical Council

Referral to the General Medical Council would not normally be appropriate unless local procedures have been exhausted - : see "a guide for patients"