Westerhope Medical Group

377 Stamfordham Road Dr A J Smith Westerhope Dr A P Thompson Dr N J Wild NE5 2LH Dr P M Coipel Telephone (0191) 2437000 Dr K Cushing Fax (0191) 2437006

Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from any of the doctors or staff working at the Westerhope Medical Group, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our system meets national criteria.

How to complain

We always do our best to provide a high quality service. Even so we recognise that there may be times when you are unhappy with the service you have received and wish to make a complaint.

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly with the person concerned. If your problem can not be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint please let us know as soon as possible. Ideally this should be within a few days, as this will enable us to investigate what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint as soon as possible after an event and not more than 12 months after the date the matter complained about occurred or the date that you were aware of the event.

Complaints should be addressed to Paul Waters (Practice Manager) or any of the doctors. He 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.

Some complainants prefer to send their complaint to the commissioner of NHS services. This is NHS and details of how to complain to them are listed below. NHS England will consider who is best placed to address your concerns and will normally ask the practice to respond to you.

Who can help in making a complaint?

The North East Independent Complaints Advocacy (ICA) team can guide and support you through the complaints process. They can help you put your complaint in writing and attend meetings with you. However the ICA team does not investigate complaints. North East ICA can be contacted on 0808 802 3000.

Branch Surgeries 452 Denton Road Clinic Springfield Road Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 7HD NE5 3DS Telephone - (0191) 2411101 Telephone - (0191) 2380018

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and will investigate the complaint as quickly and thoroughly as possible and responding at the earliest opportunity.

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 should you wish to do so.

* make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.

* identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

NHS England is the commissioner of primary care services (such as GP and dental practices) and, if you prefer, you can send your complaint about these services to NHS England at the address below:

Tel 0300 311 22 33 Email: [email protected] In writing NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT

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. If this is the case consent will need to be provided by the patient’s next of kin.

If you are dissatisfied with the practice’s response

We hope that if you have a problem you will use 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.

If, however, you remain unhappy with how your complaint has been handled you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to review your complaint. You should do this within 12 months from the date on which the subject matter of the complaint occurred.

The PHSO can be contacted:

Helpline 0345 015 4033 Email [email protected] In writing Ombudsman at Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP

Further information about the Ombudsman is also available on their website www.ombudsman.org.uk Complaint Form

Name Date of Birth

Address

Telephone No.

Date of incident about which you wish to complain

Nature of complaint (please be as specific as possible - continue on a separate sheet if necessary)

Signed

Date

Please forward to Paul Waters, Practice Manager 377 Stamfordham Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE5 2LH