Complaints
Introduction:
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 a NHS wide system for dealing with complaints.
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 on the same day. This is because the sooner we know about a problem, the easier it will be for us to establish what happened. In any event, please let us have details of your complaint within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem.
Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager. We have a complaints proforma which you should complete with as much detail as possible and return to us at the usual practice address. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment to see the practice manager and discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days of receiving it and, following an investigation of the circumstances, will make a formal response to you within 3 weeks. We will find out what happened and what may have gone wrong and then offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this. Finally we will make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate and identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again.
It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
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 his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed to authorize you to complain on their behalf.
Complaining to South Birmingham Primary Care Trust (SBPCT):
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. If for any reason you feel that the practice complaints procedure has not resolved your problem, then you can approach SBPCT directly, especially should you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.