We aim to give a friendly and professional service to everyone who attends our practice. However, if, for any reason, our service should fall below our patients’ satisfaction, we take all complaints very seriously. If you would like to make a complaint regarding the surgery or the services we offer, please contact the Practice Manager, Mrs Jo Nightingale either by telephone or in writing, who will make every effort to respond to your concerns as soon as possible. All complaints will be treated as confidential.
Medication
Over the counter complaints 01634 035095 option 3 and option 2
Making a Complaint
If you have any feedback, concerns or complaints about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice, please let us know. We always take these seriously and value them, as they help us improve our care.
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 formal complaint, please let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily whilst fresh in memory. If this is not possible, we will still investigate within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or the discovery of the problem.
If the interval is longer than 12 months we may still, at our discretion, investigate the complaint but you must be aware that it might not be possible to give a detailed response.
The Patient Liaison Officer, Jane Gearing, will quickly and sensitively help you with any concerns or complaint.
She will explain the complaints procedure to you and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. You can make a complaint:
- In person. Ask to speak to the Patient Liaison Officer
- In writing. You may find it easier to explain in writing. Please give as much information as you can and send your complaint to Mrs Jo Nightingale as soon as possible to Woodlands Family Practice, Woodlands Road, Gillingham, Kent ME7 2BU.
What we will do
Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we resolve concerns or complaints effectively and as soon as possible under local resolution.
We will acknowlege your complaint within 3 working days and will give you a timescale of when you can expect a response to your complaint. This will usually be within two weeks of the date when you raised it with us. We will then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.
When we look into your complaint, we will aim to;
- Find out what happened and what went wrong
- Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned if you would like this.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where appropriate
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again
- At the end of the investigation your complaint will be discussed with you in detail either in person or in writing.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note 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 be needed, unless they are incapable of providing this.
What you can do next
We hope that if you have any concerns or problems you will let us know and if needed use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right what ever has gone wrong and the opportunity to improve our practice to benefit all our patients.
Ask a Receptionist for you to speak with our Patient liaison officer Jane Gearing
Telephone on 01634 854431 or
Email janegearing@nhs.net
This does not affect your right to approach NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the way we are dealing with your complaint.
You may make your complaint directly to NHS Frimley ICB who commission our service:
By telephone: 0300 561 0290
By email: Frimleyicb.southeastcomplaints@nhs.net
By post: South East Complaints Hub
NHS Frimley ICB
Aldershot Centre for Health
Hospital Hill
Aldershot, Hampshire
GU11 1AY.
You can also access support and help via the NHS Complaints Independent Advocacy Service SEAP at:
SEAP
PO Box 375
Hastings TN34 9HU
Telephone Number: 0330 440 9000
Email www.seap.org.uk
If you remain dissatisfied with the responses to your complaint, you have the right to ask The Health Servce Ombudsman to review your case. The Healthcare Commission is an independant body established to promote improvements in healthcare through the assessment of the performance of those who provide services.
You can contact them on or write to them at:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower,
Millbank,
London
SW1P 4QP
Telephone Number: 0345 015 4033
www.ombudsman.org.uk
Help Us Get it Right
We constantly try to improve the services we offer.
Please let us know when you think we have done something well, or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve.