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 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 if possible – 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 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- within 12 months of discovering that you have the problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to the Operations Manager in the first instance in writing to:
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it and aim to have looked into your complaint within 6 Months or earlier, depending in the nature of the complaint. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we 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 that you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
- identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t 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 permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of a medical problem) of providing this.
Complaining to NHS England
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. However, this does not affect your right to approach NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
NHS Commissioning Board
Telephone: 020 8221 5750
Email: nelondonicb.complaints@nhs.net
In writing:
Complaints Department
NHS North East London
4th Floor – Unex Tower
5 Station Street
London E15 1DA
Independent Advice and Advocacy Support:
You can get free support, at any time, from your local independent complaint’s advocacy service. The details are as follows:
This service is provided by POhWER, an Independent Complaints Advocacy Service. You can contact them by:
Telephone: 0300 456 2370
Email: NHSComplaints@pohwer.net
Text: Send ‘pohwer’ with your name and number to 81025
POhWER can assist in writing letters and helping you present your case.
If you need help with your complaint
You can seek support with VoiceAbility either on their website: www.voiceability.org, by phone at: 0300 330 5454 or by email at: nhscomplaints@voiceability.org.
Taking it further
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome you may refer the matter to:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel 0345 015 4033