Remember

1. We want you to let us know if you are unhappy or have a suggestion about how we can do things better.
2. All complaints are treated in the strictest confidence.
3. Making a complaint will not affect your treatment or care.

The doctors and staff at our practice are committed to providing high quality healthcare and services to patients.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from doctors or any of the staff working at our practice, please let us know.

We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our practice complaints procedure meets national criteria.

Make a Complaint

The Complaints Handling Procedure

We aim to resolve any complaints and concerns easily and quickly, and if possible at the time they arise with the person concerned.

If your complaint or concern cannot be resolved immediately and if you wish to make a complaint, please provide us with details of your complaint as soon as possible so we can establish the issues in a timely manner. If it is not possible to do so, please provide us with details of your complaint:

• Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem OR
• Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem

Complaints should be addressed to the Complaints Manager. Alternatively you may ask for an appointment with the Complaints Manager in order to have your concerns dealt with promptly, in which case, we would require in advance for you to provide the full details of our complaint in writing. This is to ensure that we have conducted a thorough investigation to address your concerns on the day of your appointment.

You can provide this in your own format providing this covers all the necessary aspects.

1. You can use our website to submit your complaint or
2. Simply post your letter of complaint to our site addresses given below:
3. If your registered GP is based at our St Peter site - Church Lane, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, SL9 9RR
4. If you registered GP is based at our St Giles site   - Townfield Lane, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, HP8 4QG

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else:

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply.

We may still need to correspond direct with the patient, or may be able to deal direct with the third party, and this depends on the wording of the authority provided.

What we do next

We look to settle complaints as soon as possible. Below is our process of dealing with complaints

1. We will acknowledge receipt within 3 working days, and aim to have looked into the matter within 28 working days.
2. You may then receive a formal reply in writing, or you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue.
3. If the matter is likely to take longer than this we will let you know, and keep you informed as the investigation progresses.
4. When looking into a complaint we attempt to see what happened and why, to see if there is something we can learn from this, and make it possible for you to discuss the issue with those involved if you would like to do so.
5. When the investigations are complete your complaint will be determined and a final response sent to you.
6. Where your complaint involves more than one organisation (e.g. social services) we will liaise with that organisation so that you receive one coordinated reply. We may need your consent to do this. Where your complaint has been sent initially to an incorrect organisation, we may seek your consent to forward this to the correct person to deal with.
7. The final response letter will include details of the result of your complaint and also your right to escalate the matter further if you remain dissatisfied with the response.

We believe that any complaint you have about the practice can be dealt with by those responsible for ensuring patient care and delivery of service within the practice, but we recognise that you may feel uncomfortable with doing so or that you may be unhappy with the result of our complaints procedure. You have the right, therefore, to alternatively complain to any of the following five bodies.

NHS complaints Advocacy Service:

You may also wish to contact the NHS complaints Advocates. NHS complaints advocates support people to complain about the treatment or care that they or a friend or family member have received from an NHS service. This support is available at every stage of the complaints process. You can find a service local to you using their website 

Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and Berkshire Integrated Care Board:

You can also esclate your complaints to South East complaints process which is now hosted by Frimley ICB for our region. Contact the Complaints team via the contact details below:

South East Complaints Hub
NHS Frimley ICB
Aldershot Centre for Health
Hospital Hill
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU11 1AY

Phone number: 0300 561 0290
Email address: Frimleyicb.southeastcomplaints@nhs.net

If you are Dissatisfied with the Outcome of our investigation, you have the right to approach the Ombudsman. The contact details are:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Millbank Tower

Millbank

London

SW1P 4QP

Tel: 0345 0154033

 Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk