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Barndoc Healthcare complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received please let us know. We operate a complaint procedure as part of a NHS system dealing with complaints which meets the national criteria.

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 resolved 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 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;

1. within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
2. within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to our complaints manager Mrs. W. Cousins. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be of great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

WHAT WE SHALL DO

We shall acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within twenty five 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. If we are unable to complete the investigation within the specified time, you will be notified of any delays and be advised of when you can expect the investigation to be completed. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:

1. find out what happened and what went wrong
2. offer you the opportunity to meet us to discuss the matter
3. make sure you receive a full written response from the Chief Executive
4. identify what we can do to improve our services

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 in writing.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW

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

However, if you are dissatisfied with the response you can put your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman who represents the last stage in the NHS complaints process. The Ombudsman carries out independent investigations into complaints about poor treatment or service provided through the NHS in England and her services are free. The Ombudsman would normally expect that complaints be made to her within 12 months of the events complained about. The Ombudsman does have some discretion to consider complaints received outside of that limit but she would need to have good reason to do so.

If you have any questions about whether the Ombudsman may be able to help you, or about how to make a complaint, please contact their helpline on
0345 051 4033, email
or fax 0300 051 4000. Further information about the Ombudsman is available at: www.ombudsman.org.uk. You can write to the Ombudsman at:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP