Private Medical Practise in Portobello, London

Complaints Procedure

A complaint may be defined as a grievance raised by a dissatisfied user of the services offered and provided by the practice. Complaints may relate to the quality of care, professional competence, administrative and support services provided and may be of a clinical or non-clinical nature.

All suggestions for improvement of this practice are welcomed and the practice manager is available to receive your comments and to deal with any problems which may arise.

The doctors in this practice are also members of the Independent Doctors Forum. This offers access to an independent review of any complaints which cannot be resolved within the practice.

Details of the IDF review are available from:
Fiona Merrick
IDF Secretary
Tel: 0208 505 6995
Or visit www.independentdoctorsforum.net

Internal Complaints Procedure

There are two ways in which patients can register a complaint. In all cases the first point of contact should be the practice manager.

1. Informal discussion.

Patients are free to call the practice manager at any time to register a complaint or discuss any concerns that they have about their treatment. He will endeavour to rectify the situation to mutual satisfaction and the incident will be recorded in the practice complaints file.

Where informal complaints are made directly to other members of staff, they will similarly endeavour to resolve the situation in a mutually agreeable way. The member of staff will then report the incident to the practice manager, who will record it in the practice complaints file. Patients who feel the situation has not been resolved to their satisfaction should then refer the matter to the practice manager.

2. Formal complaint

If patients are unhappy with the outcome of an informal discussion, or from the outset would like their complaint investigated more fully, they can use the practice complaints procedure which is aimed at dealing with complaints quickly and in a friendly and non-threatening way.

• Patients wishing to use the practice complaints procedure should first arrange to speak with the practice manager.
• He will record full details of the complaint, and attempt to resolve in an appropriate manner.
• Should the complaint not be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, a formal investigation will be initiated.

At this stage patients are kindly requested to write with their complaint, and address it to the practice manager and include:

• a clear outline of the complaint
• the date and time of the incident
• the names of the people involved

The patient will receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours confirming receipt of the formal written complaint, and the confirming the facts of the matter (unless a full response can be sent within 5 working days). Patients who have not had a response within this timeframe should call the practice manager directly to ensure their complaint has been received.

Complaints about clinical matters will be investigated by the practice manager and the partners of the practice. Administrative complaints will normally be investigated by the practice manager. Every effort will be made to complete these investigations within one working week.

A full response in writing, setting out the conclusion of the investigation and action, if any, taken in respect of it, is to be made within 20 working days of receipt of the complaint, unless the investigation is still in progress, in which case a letter explaining the reasons for the delay, is to be sent to the complainant. Thereafter, the full response to the complaint is to be given to the complainant within 5 working days of a conclusion being reached in respect of the complaint.

Meetings between the parties concerned may need to take place to clarify the nature and detail of the complaint. Such meetings may extend and take place outside the time frame set out in the proceeding paragraph but such meetings must take place in privacy and at a mutually convenient time and conform to an agreed timetable. The nature and outcome of any such meetings and the discussions in those meetings should be recorded.

A register and the records of all complaints should be kept and stored and subject to regular audit but with regard for patient confidentiality. The register of complaints should include information on whether or not the complaint was upheld, the results of the investigation, the resolution of the complaint and the action taken.

In the event that this meeting fails to resolve the matter, or if the patient declines the invitation, patients will be referred to an independent authority, the Independent Doctors Forum, for further inquiry.

External Conciliation

External conciliation is offered to all patients in the event that internal investigation fails to achieve a resolution. In this event the practice manager will contact a member of the IDF Council.

Both parties will provide a short statement about the episode in question. It is recommended that any medical statement should be previously vetted by the appropriate medical indemnity organisation.

These statements will be forwarded to a conciliator.

The Conciliator will arrange to meet both parties at a mutually convenient time, when both parties will be able to put forward their argument. In the subsequent discussions, the experienced Conciliator will explore possible avenues to resolve the problem.

The Conciliator will issue a report to both parties and a copy will be sent to the IDF. It will include a summary of the following

• The material facts
• The apparent grounds of difference between the two parties
• Whether the complaint has been substantiated, upheld or rejected
• Proposals for resolving or addressing the complaint, including remedial action recommended.

Alternate Dispute Resolution

Though being encouraged by The Lord Chancellor and being increasingly used by the NHS Litigation Authority, the decision to use alternative dispute resolution techniques will be made by the medical indemnifiers. In this stage, professional mediators will be employed.

The procedures followed are at the discretion of the mediator. However, they usually follow this sequence

• The mediator opens proceedings by explaining his position
• Each party in turn is invited to make a brief opening statement without interruption from the other party.
• Each party is invited to comment briefly on the other's statements
• The mediator will allocate to each party a separate room to which they can retire and where confidential discussions can be made.
• The mediator will investigate aspects of the case with each party in confidence and explore possible areas of reconciliation. With the party's consent, he will convey any proposals to the other party for their consideration.
• If both sides agree to a set of proposals, they are brought together again in a plenary session to produce a formal binding agreement.

Duration: Probably 1, possibly 2, days.

Timetable: Within 6 weeks of notification of decision to proceed to ADR

The complaints procedure is reviewed at regular intervals and updated as required, both by the practice and by the Independent Doctors' Forum.