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 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 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 that no more than 12 months has elapsed from the date of the incident.
Written complaints should be addressed to Mrs Sarah Wetten, our Deputy Practice Manager. She 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.
What We Shall Do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of it being raised 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
arrange 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 does not 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) of providing this.
Complaining to The Health Authority
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that 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 the local health authority if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact Bath and North East Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group on 01225 831800 and ask to speak to the complaints lead.
If You Need Help
You can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). They will offer you assistance to contact independent advice services if you would like support in making your complaint. The PALS office is open Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm and also has a 24 hour answer phone service on 01225 831800.
Independent specialist advice is available from citizen's advice to help you through the NHS complaints process. The service is called the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) and they can be contacted on 0845 1203782. Their address is: ICAS, Unit 3, Premier House, Willowside Park, Canal Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8RH.
Finally, if you are still unhappy with the response to your complaint, then you can contact the Health Service Ombudsman on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983 or by visiting their website http://www.lgo.org.uk/