Complaints, Compliments and Comments

Practice Complaint Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working at this Practice, please let us know. We 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, please raise any concern directly with the receptionist or clinician you are dealing with. We hope that this is the quickest way to resolve any issue you are facing. If your concern cannot be dealt with in this way, please ask for the reception manager who will do her best to resolve your concern.

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 soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have 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 to the Complaints Lead for the Surgery-Mrs Ceara Keane at Attenborough Surgery, Bushey Medical Centre, London Road, Bushey, Herts WD23 2NN – Telephone 01923 231633 

Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment in order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaint procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What Shall We Do?

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

Find out from all parties, 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 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 will 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 (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.
However, if you feel you cannot raise the complaint directly with the practice please contact:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
By email to [email protected]
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

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint that has been investigated by the practice or by NHS England you have the right to take your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is independent of the government and the NHS.

Their service is confidential and free. There are time limits for making a complaint to the Ombudsman, although she can waive them if she thinks there is a good reason to do so. If you have any questions about whether the Ombudsman will be able to help you, or about how to make a complaint, you can contact their helpline on 0345 015 4033, email [email protected] or fax 0300 061 4000.

Further information about the Ombudsman is available at www.ombudsman.org.uk.
You can write to the Ombudsman at:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP