Making a Complaint User Guide
Making a complaint
We aim to provide a caring, high-quality service and are always pleased to receive your feedback, both positive and negative. If the service provided has not met your expectations, then we would like to know why not. All comments and complaints are taken seriously regardless of their nature.
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly so it is helpful if you can make your comments at the time the problem occurred or as soon as possible afterwards. This gives us the best opportunity to resolve the issues immediately.
If it is not possible to do that, please let us have the details of your complaint:
- Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- Within 12 months from the time that you became aware of the problem.
We will respond to your concerns considerately, quickly and as effectively as possible in line with the NHS Complaints regulations (2009).
How to make a complaint
Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we resolve any complaints as quickly as possible.
Stage one – local resolution:
Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we resolve any complaints as quickly as possible.
Stage one – local resolution
You can make your complaint:
- In person/by telephone – ask to speak to a member of the Governance Team.
- In writing (including email) – some complaints are easier to explain in writing, please give as much information as you can, then send to the Head of Governance as soon as possible.
We shall contact you within three working days of receipt to discuss how you would like the complaint taken forward and investigated. We will also agree with you a timescale within which our response will be sent.
The response will tell you how the complaint was investigated, the evidence considered, the conclusions reached and any actions taken.
When we look at 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 appropriate
- Make sure you receive an apology, where appropriate
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
It may be helpful for you to meet with the Manager and the Clinician to discuss your concerns and if this is the case arrangements will be made for this to happen at a convenient time.
Complaining on behalf of somebody else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rule of medical confidentiality.
If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so.
We will require their written permission to do so unless they are incapable of providing this, through illness or in the case of a child. Only information relevant to the complaint will be disclosed.
If the patient does not want any information from their health records to be disclosed, this might affect the extent to which we can investigate and respond to your complaint.
Stage two – an internal review:
If you are unhappy with the response you receive from the local Manager you can write to the Head of Governance and request an internal review (please refer to address within the ‘Who to contact’ section of the leaflet). You can expect an impartial and objective re-investigation into your complaint by a member of the Senior Management Team.
The Investigation will also review how your complaint was handled at the local stage.
Stage three – the Parliamentary and Health Service ombudsman:
If, following internal review – stage two, you are still dissatisfied with the outcome of both internal investigations; you may request an external review of your complaint from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
Who to contact
Stage one
The Manager at the address where you received your care.
Stage two
Governance Manager
BrisDoc Healthcare Services
21 Osprey Court
Hawkfield Business Park
Whitchurch
Bristol
BS14 0BB
Email: severnside.governance@nhs.net
Stage three
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
The Independent Complaints Advocacy Service
You may wish to have support in dealing with your complaint and seek the services of the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service – The Advocacy People.
This service can be contacted on:
Tel: 0330 440 9000