We are committed to putting patient care at the centre of all we do, and we actively encourage feedback from all service users and members of the public We’re sorry that you’ve experienced an issue that is cause for complaint.
Before raising a formal complaint, we encourage you to speak directly with the staff involved in your treatment and care, as often problems and concerns can be addressed and resolved quickly.
How to make a complaint
You can make your complaints in writing by letter or email, or by phone in. The complaints manager at Primecare Medical Centre is Jotsan Shrestha. You can put in your complaints in writing or email to pmc.admin@nhs.net
If you make a verbal complaint, we will need to make a written statement of the conversation and ask you to confirm that this accurate. We can’t start to investigate your concerns until you confirm that the written statement accurately reflects the details of the complaint you’ve raised.
When we receive your complaint, we will contact you within three working days to confirm that we have received your complaint and explain how our formal complaints process works.
A formal complaint requires a full investigation and a written response from the surgery. It takes time to undertake a full investigation so that we can
- enable staff to identify what happened
- talk to the staff involved and review medical records
- establish if there were any failings
- learn from situations where something has gone wrong and change the way we work to prevent it happening again’
- provide a full written response.
We aim to give you explanations and answers in relation to the issues you have raised. We are never afraid to say sorry and, importantly, we will tell you what we are doing to improve services as a result of the complaint you have made. We assure you that if you make a complaint it will not negatively affect the care or treatment you receive, and details of any complaints made are kept separate from your medical records.
Please note:
- You can raise a complaints on behalf of a patient, but we must have the permission of the patient before we can discuss any personal circumstances with anyone else.
- You can raise a formal complaint within 12 months of becoming aware of the problem. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, we can decide to still investigate a complaint outside of that timeframe if we have good reasons to do so. Please contact us using the details below if you have any questions.
When making a complaint, it helps us if you can ensure you provide:
- Your name, address and phone number.
- When and where the problem happened.
- The patient’s name, address and date of birth if you are writing on behalf of a relative or friend. We will need appropriate consent from the patient to discuss their personal circumstances.
- Relevant details about what happened.
- A clear set of questions explaining what you would like us to investigate and provide answers to.
- An indication of what outcome you would like to see from your complaint.
If you're unhappy with our response to your complaint, please let us know as soon as possible
- if you feel there are any questions we haven't answered
- if there are issues you feel we could take further action on
- if you have any new cause for concern which was not raised earlier.
The sooner you contact us, the sooner we can discuss how to resolve your concerns. We will be happy to carry out further investigations, where appropriate, and we might suggest a meeting at this stage, if you have not had a meeting before.
You can raise your complaint directly to Mid and South Essex ICB or NHS England should you wish not to complaint to us however we would recommend you to put your complaint to us first.
Mid and South Essex ICB
Phoenix House, Christopher Martin Road,
Basildon SS14 3HG
Telephone: 01268 594444
Mseicb.complaints@nhs.net
NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT Telephone: 0300 311 2233
However, if you still remain dissatisfied from the response that you have received from us you can raise your complaint with The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who investigates complaints about NHS services, including how complaints have been handled locally. The Ombudsman will not usually investigate unless you have complained to the ICB and had a final response.
We can provide you with more information about the Ombudsman’s role on request, or you can visit their website to get information on their role and process. Their website is www.ombudsman.org.uk and their contact details are:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Confidentiality
All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Where the investigation of the complaint requires consideration of the patient’s medical records, we will inform the patient or person acting on his/her behalf if the investigation will involve disclosure of information contained in those records to a person other than the Practice or an employee of the Practice.
We keep a record of all complaints and copies of all correspondence relating to complaints, but such records will be kept separate from patients’ medical records.
Statistics and reporting
The Practice must submit to the local primary care organisation periodically/at agreed intervals details of the number of complaints received and actioned.