Complaints procedure
The goals of the in-house procedure are to provide:
- A clear explanation.
- An apology where appropriate.
- Reassurance that steps will be taken to prevent the same thing happening again.
Care must be taken to ensure patient confidentiality at all times. If you have any complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working at The Red Practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaint procedure as part of the NHS complaints system for dealing with complaints. This procedure meets the 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 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 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 the date of discovering that you have a problem, providing that it is within 12 months of the incident.
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of the date you raised it with us. We will then be in a position to offer an explanation or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we 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 this is appropriate
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not 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 his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of signing this.
Complaining to the Health Authority
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaint 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, this does not affect your right to approach the health authority if you feel that you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should write to the Complaints & Claims Manager, Complaints and Advice, Level 7, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee. DD1 9SY