Complaints/Concerns

Comments, Suggestions or Complaints

Practice Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint/suggestion 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 the 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 quick 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 the 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.
Complaints should be addressed to Mr Reg Gill, Practice Manager. Alternatively you may ask for an appointment to see him, in order to discuss your complaint. He 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 2 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:
Investigate all the points you have raised
Find out what happened and what went wrong
Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
Ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
If necessary, explain why nothing more can be done about some parts of your complaint
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again
Evaluate practice policy and where necessary make necessary improvements of the systems and procedures we use
Forward information to you about the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman
If you need help with your complaint
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 signed mandate by the person concerned will be required, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

The Ombudsman
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of 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 Ombudsman, if you feel you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, 99 Bridge Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4NS, Tel: 0800 377 7330, 
or by their contact form  https://www.spso.org.uk/contact-form

Advocacy
If you find it difficult to make a complaint yourself and want someone to speak for you, you can ask for an independent advocate. An independent advocate is someone from outside the NHS who can speak for you or help you to express your views. Your local NHS board, or complaints officer will be able to tell you about advocacy services in your area.

Conciliation
An independent conciliator is someone from outside the NHS who can speak for you or help you to express you or views. Your local NHS board or complaints officer will be able to tell you about advocacy services in your area.
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