Our aim is to provide the highest level of care for all our patients. We will always be willing to hear if there is any way that you think that we can improve the service we provide. Please let us know when you think we have done something well or if you have any suggestions as to how we can do something better.

Making a complaint

If you have any complaints or concerns about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice, please let us know.

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 or discuss a concern, 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 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem giving as much detail as you can.

Emma Horne, Operations Manager; Kim Woodward, Reception Manager or Sharon Bicknell, Practice Manager are the Practice Complaints Officer’s and will be pleased to deal with any concern or complaint. They will explain the procedure to you and make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. You can make your complaint:

In person – In the first instance please ask to speak to Emma Horne or Kim Woodward

In writing – some complaints may be easier to explain in writing – please give as much information as can, then send your complaint to the practice for the attention of Sharon Bicknell as soon as possible.

What we shall do

Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we settle any complaints as quickly as possible.

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 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 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 appropriate
• identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

At the end of the investigation you will receive a letter of explanation.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical & personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Please ask at reception for the complaints form which contains a suitable authority for the patient to sign to enable the complaint to proceed.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply.

We may still need to correspond direct with the patient, or may be able to deal direct with the third party, and this depends on the wording of the authority provided.

What you can do next

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and the opportunity to improve our practice.

Alternatively, if you feel that do not want to contact the surgery directly, you can contact The Primary Care Complaints Team, who is the commissioner of primary care services for the south east, at the Customer Contact Centre:

• Telephone: 0300 561 0290
• Email: Frimleyicb.southeastcomplaints@nhs.net
• Address: South East Complaints Hub NHS Frimley ICB Aldershot Centre for Health
  Hospital Hill
  Aldershot
  Hampshire
  GU11 1AY

By email to: england.contactus@nhs.net
If you are making a complaint please state: ‘For the attention of th4e complaints team’ in the subject line.
By telephone: 0300 311 22 33

If you are still not satisfied with the handling of your complaint you do have the right to refer your case to the second stage of the NHS Complaints Process – the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
  Citygate
  47 – 51 Mosley Street
  Manchester
  M2 3HQ

Telephone 0345 015 4033

Further information about the Ombudsman is available at: www.ombudsman.org.uk

If you require help or feel you would benefit from receiving advocacy support when making a complaint please contact: Healthwatch Hampshire, Freepost RTHH-KGST-ZRBC, Westgate Chambers, Staple Gardens, Winchester, SO23 8SR. Telephone 01962 440262 www.healthwatchhampshire.co.uk

Complaints in respect of Out of Hours Primary Care Services should be addressed to:

Out of Hours Service Manager
Solent NHS Trust
Adelaide Health Centre
William Macleod Way
Millbrook
Southampton
SO16 4XE

Complaints in respect of Andover or Winchester Hospital Services should be addressed to:

Chief Executive
Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust
Royal Hampshire County Hospital
Romsey Road
Winchester
SO22 5DG