Drumnadrochit Medical Practice

COMPLAINTS - COMMENTS – SUGGESTIONS

PRACTICE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

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 MAKE A COMPLAINT

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, then you can approach any member of the practice team. We would aim to deal with any problem both quickly and effectively. It would be helpful if you could inform us of any problem as soon as possible after the incident has taken place as this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. .

If this is not possible, 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: Mhairi Marshall, Office Manager or you may make an appointment with a member of staff to discuss your concerns.

WHAT WE SHALL DO

We will send an acknowledgement within 2 working days and an explanation within 10 working days. In investigating your complaint, we aim to;

a) Find out what happened, and what went wrong

b) Enable you, if you would like, to discuss the problem with those concerned

c) Ensure you receive an apology, if appropriate

d) Try to prevent the same thing happening in the future

COMPLAINING ON BEHALF OF SOMEONE ELSE

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, and in order to maintain patient confidentiality, we will require 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.

If a person feels unable to deal with a complaint alone, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau or local MSP can offer assistance and support at any stage of the Complaints Procedure:

Citizen’s Advice Bureau (Telephone No. 01463 235345)

103 Academy Street

INVERNESS

COMPLAINING TO THE HEALTH BOARD

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the chance to put right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. But this does not affect your right to approach the Health Board (NHS Highland) if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. NHS Highland can only act as an honest broker between the practice and the complainant and would not get involved in the actual investigation of the complaint at any time. You can contact the NHS Highland Complaints Team as follows for further advice:

The Complaints Team

NHS Highland

PO Box 5713

Inverness

IV1 9AQ

Tel: 01463 705997

Fax: 01463 713844

Email –

SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS

If you would like to make a suggestion that you feel could improve the service we offer to patients, please let us know by using the suggestion box in the Waiting Room, or by discussing with a member of staff.

Updated August 2011