Your feedback is important to us because it helps us to improve.
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our in-house complaints procedure. We do believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and improving our practice.
You are able to:
- Give a compliment
- Give negative feedback
- Give positive feedback
- Make a complaint
If you wish to raise a concern, please ask to speak to a branch lead in person or over the phone on 01912 570223 in the first instance - We would like the opportunity to resolve your query first.
If we are unable to resolve your query above in the first instance, then a branch lead will be able to give you information on the next steps to support you.
Time limits
We hope that most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily at the time they arise and with the person concerned.
If the 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 because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. Usually, complaints can only be investigated if they are made either within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or within 12 months of you realising that you have something to complain about. These time limits can be waived if there are valid reasons why you could not submit a complaint sooner.
Advocacy services
If you feel you need help with making a complaint there are Advocacy Services which can help give you free, confidential and independent support with making your complaint Advocates are independent professionals who are trained to support you, and they do not work for the surgery or the NHS:
North East ICA, Aidan House,
Sunderland Road,
Gateshead, NE8 3HU
Tel: 0808 802 3000
www.carersfederation.co.uk
Investigating your complaint
We aim to complete our investigation into your complaint within 3 months. If we find it is not going to be possible to complete our investigation in a timely manner, we will update you verbally or in writing to explain the delay.
When we investigate your complaint, we aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong.
- Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with the complaints manager, if you wish.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.
Your rights when making a complaint
You have the right to:
- Have any complaint dealt with efficiently and properly investigated.
- Know the outcome of any investigation into your complaint.
- Take your complaint to the independent Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) if you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been dealt with by the practice/ICB. www.ombudsman.org.uk