Suggestions
We welcome comments on the services provided. These should be directed to the Practice Manager, Mr Chris Maddison.
Complaints
We always try to provide the best service possible, but there may be times when you feel this has not happened. The following information explains our in-house complaints procedure, drawn up to respond to patient grievances. We hope you will use it to allow us to look into, and, if necessary, correct any problems that you have identified, or mistakes that have been made.
All complaints made to OLMC will be viewed as valuable feedback and lessons learned will be shared across the organisation in order to rectify mistakes and to improve the quality of services for the future.
How to complain
Complaints should be made as soon as possible after the event. They are treated in confidence, will not be filed on your medical records and will not affect your treatment in any way. If someone else (e.g. a relative or friend) complains on your behalf, we will need your written consent for that person to act for you.
If you wish to make a formal complaint, please do so as soon as possible – ideally within a matter of a few days as this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If that’s not possible your complaint should be submitted within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.
You should address your complaint to the Practice Manager, Chris Maddison who will make sure that we deal with your concerns promptly and in the correct way.
What we will do
We aim to acknowledge all formal complaints within three working days and a full investigation will take place. The Complaints Manager will provide you with a full response, which should usually be within ten working days. If it’s not possible to respond within this timescale, you will be contacted and told regularly what is happening. A full response should include:
- An apology, if appropriate
- A detailed answer to each part of your complaint
- An offer of a meeting with you, if appropriate
- Details of any action that has been taken to prevent the problem happening again
Other routes
Whilst we hope that you will address your complaint to the practice directly, you may, if you prefer, address your complaint to NHS England – Independent Practitioner Complaints. They will forward the complaint to us at the practice for us to investigate in the normal way and they will be copied in to any response.
Independent Practitioner Complaints
NHS England
Customer Contact Centre – 0300 311 22 33
NHS commission board e-mail
Sources of support for Patients
POhWER
If you have problems with the care and/or treatment provided by the National Health Service they can help you.
We regularly work with:
- Support anyone to make a complaint about the service, care or treatment provided to you by the NHS
- Support you to make a complaint on someone else’s behalf, including if someone has died.
- Listen to your concerns
- Signpost you to the right organisation in the right area if we think that we are not the right organisation for you
- Answer questions about the complaints procedure and explain your options
- Provide step by step guide to the complaints process and some tips
- Provide you with a POhWER advocate, an experienced worker who can help you make your complaint and support you through the process
- Support a young person under 16 if they have capacity to reach their own decisions. If a child does not have the capacity to make a decision about their treatment, only a parent or guardian may complain on behalf of their child without permission
Telephone: 0300 200 0084
Minicom: 0300 456 2364
Text: send the word ‘pohwer’ with your name and number to 81025
Email: [email protected]
Fax: 0300 456 2365
Post: write to ‘Pohwer’, PO Box 14043, Birmingham b6 9BL
Taking it further
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint you may refer the matter to:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,
Millbank Tower,
London,
SW1P 4QP
Telephone: 0345 0154033
Ombudsman website link
Complaining on behalf of someone else
We keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality (a separate leaflet giving more detail on confidentiality is available on request). If you are not the patient, but are complaining on their behalf, you must have their permission to do so. An authority signed by the patient concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness or infirmity) of providing this.
Patient Advice and Liason Service (PALS)
If patients need advice that does not constitute a complaint being made, they can contact PALS. A confidential service to:
- Advise and support patients, families and carers
- Provide information, and signposting, to NHS services
- Listen to concerns, suggestions or queries and pass to service managers
- Help to resolve problems quickly on behalf of the enquirer
This service does not handle complaints but acts as a contact point to enable guidance for patients, and can often direct them to the appropriate organisation or member of staff best placed to deal with queries raised. PALS will inform Lincolnshire Community Health Services and NHS Lincolnshire of the outcome of all contacts to facilitate the improvement of services.
