Hamilton Medical Group

HAMILTON MEDICAL GROUP

4 QUEEN'S ROAD

ABERDEEN AB15 4ZT

TELEPHONE: 0844 477 8930

PRACTICE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

We endeavour to give you the best service possible at all times but there may be occasions when you feel you wish to express dissatisfaction. If you have a complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the Practice, please let us know. We operate a Complaints Procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints.

This procedure does not deal with matters of legal liability or compensation but we hope you will use it to give us the opportunity to look into, and if necessary, correct any problems that may have arisen.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be resolved 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 discovering that you have a problem (provided this is within 12 months of the incident, although complaints outwith the 12-month period will be considered it if is deemed that it would have been unreasonable for the complainant to make the complaint within that period, and it is still possible to investigate the complaint properly).

Complaints should be addressed to Mrs Diane Gordon, Practice Complaints Officer. Alternatively, you may ask to see Mrs Gordon immediately, if you wish to complain while present at the surgery, or contact her by telephone to discuss the complaint, or make an appointment with her. She will explain the Complaints 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 we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receipt, and aim to have looked into your complaint and provide you with a full written response within 10 working days of receipt. We shall then be in a position to give you a written explanation or offer a meeting with the Practice Manager, along with any Doctor involved, or the Executive Partner. You may bring a friend or relative with you to the meeting, if you wish. By investigating your complaint, we aim to:

-find out what happened and what went wrong;

-enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;

-ensure 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 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 Board (NHS Grampian)

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of 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 the NHS Grampian Complaints Team (contact details given below) if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us directly, or if you are dissatisfied with our response.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

If you have asked us to look into your complaint, but are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation, you have the right to ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to consider your complaint further. You should try to contact the Ombudsman no later than 12 months after the event you are complaining about. You should contact:-

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

Freepost EH641

EDINBURGH

EH3 0BR

Tel 0870 011 5378

Fax 0870 011 5379

E-mail: enquiries @scottishombudsman.org.uk

Website:

Help with your complaint

If you require assistance or advice in making your complaint, you may wish to contact the NHS Helpline service or the NHS Grampian Complaints Team, contact details as follows:-

NHS HelplineTel 0800 22 44 88

NHS Grampian Complaints TeamTel 01224 556447

NHS Grampian Complaints Team

Westholme

WoodendHospital

Queens Road

ABERDEEN

AB15 6LS

TWO-WAY PROCESS

You should be aware that General Practitioners have the right to have patients removed from their list without giving a reason. For your information, the most common reasons are because of abuse of service by the patient or a breakdown of the Doctor/Patient relationship.

However by incorporating a "two-way" process into our Practice Complaints Procedure, in the majority of cases, we would hope to avoid such action. If the Practice considers that a patient has behaved inappropriately, then we would envisage contacting the patient concerned to arrange an early meeting to discuss the complaint and to attempt to resolve the problem in a respectful and cordial manner, in the same way we would handle a patient complaint.

AUDIT

In order to monitor our effectiveness in dealing with complaints, we will send complainants a short questionnaire to complete and return to the Practice, approximately one month after their last contact with the Complaints Officer.