Springwell Medical Centre Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We take complaints seriously and operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for 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 quickly as possible – ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have the details of your complaint:
• Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem, or
• Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident
Complaints should be addressed in writing, to Ms Ali Parrott, Practice Manager. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with as soon as possible. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint. If possible if your letter could include
• Who or what you are complaining about
• Date of the event/s
• What you would like from the complaint (eg apology, explanation, further information)
Alternatively you may ask to arrange an appointment in order to discuss your concerns
What we shall do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 20 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint we shall aim to:
• Find out what happened and what went wrong;
• Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like
this
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
Complaining of behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining of behalf of someone else, we need consent of that person in writing (unless the patients illness or incapacity prevents this) this includes consent to the sharing of their medical information
We hope that we will be able to resolve your complaint internally. However, In addition, if you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you have the option of contacting the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).
The SPSO cannot normally look at:
a complaint that has not completed our complaints procedure
events that happened, or that you became aware of, more than 12 months ago
a matter that has been or is being considered in court.
The SPSO’s contact details are:
SPSO
Bridgeside House
99 McDonald Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4NS SPSO
Freepost EH641
Edinburgh
EH3 0BR Freephone: 0800 377 7330
Online contact: www.spso.org.uk/contact-us
Website: www.spso.org.uk
Mobile site: http://m.spso.org.uk
Reviewed April 2022