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 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.

Before making a complaint you could raise your concerns verbally with either the GP or a member of the practice management team. This could get your problem sorted out by the end of the following day.

If the concern you raised 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 or at most a few weeks because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.

If this is not possible, please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or 12 months from the time that you have become aware of the matter. The complaints manager will retain the discretion to investigate complaints later than this.

Reception can advise you on how to do make a complaint.

Making a complaint can be done via or feedback form, via email to thegoodinge@nhs.net or via letter.

What we will do

All complaints are reviewed by our practice management team.

Tips for making a complaint:

• Make your complaint clear – what happened ? When did it happen? How has it affected you?
• Decide what you would like to achieve – How would you like things to be put right? Perhaps you want an apology, a meeting to discuss the problem or for action to be taken to stop the same mistake from happening again.
• Complain as soon as you can – its best to complain as soon as possible while the events are still fresh in your mind.
• eep a note of anyone involved in your complaint – write down the names and positions of the people involved in, and dealing with your complaint. Make sure you keep copies of any emails or letters you get; you may need to refer to these in the future.
• Ask for help – if you need support on putting your complaint together you can contact your local advocacy provider, visit www.local.gov.uk. Your local healthwatch can provide support and information. To find your local healthwatch visit www.healthwatch.co.uk.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 to 20 working days of the date when you raised it with us, depending on the complexity of the issue. We shall then be in a position to offer you a written explanation. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

• find out what happened and what went wrong
• make sure 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 their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will he needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Complaining to the Health Authority

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. But this does not affect your right to approach the health authority. If you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation, you should contact:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
By email to: england.contactus@nhs.net
If you are making a complaint please state: ‘For the attention of the complaints team’ in the subject line.

By telephone: 0300 311 22 33
Opening hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, except Wednesdays when we open at the later time of 9.30am. We are closed on bank holidays.

If you have had a final response from either the practice or NHS England and your feel that your issue still has not been resolved, you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to look into your complaint.

Call 0345 015 4033 or visit www.ombudsman.org.uk.