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 the 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 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 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. 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
Stage One:
We will always try to resolve your complaints quickly, within 5 working days if we can. If you are dissatisfied with our response, you can ask us to consider your complaint at Stage Two.
Stage Two:
We will look at your complaint at this stage if you are dissatisfied with our response at Stage One. We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days. We will give you our decision as soon as possible. This will be after no more than 20 working days unless there is clearly a good reason for needing more time.
In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:
- 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 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.
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
If you are still dissatisfied, after the complaints procedure has been exhausted, you can request an investigation of your complaint by The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. Contact details are as follows:- 4 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NS. Tel: 08700 115378. Fax: 08700 115379. E-mail – [email protected]. Web: www.spso.org.uk
