Raising a Concern
Complaints in the NHS
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 an 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 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 six months of the date on which the matter which is the subject of the complaint occurred, or
- The date on which the matter which is the subject of the complaint came to the notice of the complainant but no later than 12 months after the event.
Your complaint should be addressed to The Practice Manager or any of the Doctors. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. The Practice Manager 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. If the complaint was made orally, then we shall confirm the details of your complaint, as we understood them, in writing.
We shall carry out an investigation and provide you with a formal response within 30 working days. If we cannot comply with this deadline, we will let you know and keep you informed of progress in relation to your complaint and reply to you as soon as reasonably possible.
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 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 their 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 OTHER BODIES
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 the Local Health Board, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us.
The contact details for the Local Health Board’s Concerns Team are:
Concerns Team
Ysbyty Gwynedd
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2PW
Tel: 01248 384194
E-mail: concernsteam.bcu@wales.nhs.uk
In addition, the local Community Health Council (CHC) provides a free and independent advocacy service which can help patients or the people acting for them to raise a concern. The local CHC Complaints Advocacy Service can be contacted at:
Unit 11 Chestnut Court
Parc Menai
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 4FH
Tel: 01248 679284 option 2
E-mail: complaints@bcchc.org.uk
What Should You Do if You Are Still Unhappy?
If your concern has been investigated and you are not happy with the response, you can contact the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales:
Ombudsman for Wales
1 Yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
CF35 5LJ
Tel: 0845 60109897
Email : ask@ombudsman-wales.org.uk
Important Note
Should a patient raise a concern, the Practice may need to access the patient's medical records.
If you do not want the Practice to access your medical records in the process of investigating your concern, please let the Practice Manager know of this in writing.
If after raising your concern, the Practice Manager does not receive your written instructions not to access your medical records, this will be understood to mean you have no objections.
