If you have any complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice you are entitled to ask for an explanation. We operate an in-house complaints procedure as part of the NHS Practice Complaints procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.
We hope most problems can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be resolved in this way and you wish to make a complaint, please inform us as soon as possible – ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – as this will enable us to deal with the circumstances more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
- Within 12 months of the incident that caused the complaint
- Within 12 months of discovering you have a problem
You can put your complaint in writing or you use our Practice complaints form – please ask at reception. You may also make your complaint verbally to the Practice Manager or Doctor.
Your complaint should be addressed to our Practice Manager or to any of the Doctors at the Practice. Alternatively, you can call the practice and ask for a member of the management team on 020 8888 1736.
What we shall do
We will aim to acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 15 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 people involved. When we look into your complaint we shall aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong
- Make it possible 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 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 providing this.
Complaining to North Central London Integrated Care Board
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, this does not affect your right to approach NHS North Central London Integrated Care Board
You can do this by:
Telephone: 020 3198 9743
E-mail: nclicb.complaints@nhs.net
Post: North Central London Integrated Care Board,
Complaints Team,
Laycock PDC,
Laycock Street,
London,
N1 1TH
Health Service Ombudsman
We endeavour to resolve all your concerns through local resolution process, but if you feel we have not done so to your satisfaction, you have the right to take your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman at www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0345 015 4033. This should be done within six months of our response.
Contact can also be made with the Ombudsman by:
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Fax: 0300 061 4000
If you would prefer to write, the address is:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,
Millbank Tower,
Millbank,
London,
SW1P 4QP
Further information about the Ombudsman is available at www.ombudsman.org.uk.
You may also like to contact the following, for help and advice from an independent body free of charge:
POhWER London Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service (IHCAS)
Telephone: 0300 456 2370 (charged at local rate)
Email: LondonIHCAS@pohwer.net
Address:
London IHCAS Advocacy Hub,
POhWER,
Hertlands House,
Primett Road,
Stevenage,
Hertfordshire,
SG1 3EE