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Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the services you have received from the doctors or any
of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints
procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints procedure meets
national criteria.
Your complaint will remain confidential to members of the practice team and those we need to talk
to for the process of resolving your complaint. Your complaint does not form part of your medical
records and is kept separate from them.
How to Complain
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and
with the people 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, because this will enable us to
establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do this, 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, providing this is within 12 months of
the incident
Where at all possible, all complaints should be in writing and be addressed to the Patient Experience
Manager, ideally completing this form which can be returned by post or email.
When telling us about your concerns, it will be of great help if you are as specific as possible about
your complaint, by giving times, dates, places, people involved etc.
If English is not your first language and you require an interpreter, please contact the local Primary
Care Trust (contact details below) where details of helpful services are available.
What We Will Do
We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receipt and aim to have looked into
the situation within a further 10 working days. We will then be in a position to offer you an
explanation.
When we look into your complaint, we will aim to -
- Find out what happened and what went wrong
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again
- In some cases we will not be able to gather all the information required within 10 days,
especially if this involves a locum/deputising doctor or a temporary member of staff. In these
instances we will offer an expected date by which we will reply fully to your complaint.
If your complaint is about clinical treatment you have (or not) received, the complaint will be
passed to a GP or nurse, who is able to make an appropriate clinical judgement and reply.
Complaining of behalf of someone else
Please note that we stick strictly to the rules on 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.
Complaints against non-practice staff or procedures
If you are unhappy about the services you have received from organisations that are not under the
practice control, such as the district nurses, health visitors, midwives, Out of Hours or any hospital
services, please make your complaint directly to the service concerned. If you need help with
where to direct your complaint, please contact the surgery and we will do our best to point you in
the right direction.
Contact Details
Patient Services Manager
Worthing Medical Group
23 Shelley Road
WORTHING
West Sussex
BN11 4BS
01903 234844
NHS West Sussex
1 The Causeway
Goring-by-Sea
West Sussex
BN12 6BT
01903 708400
Contact Us
Tel: 01903 234844 Prescription Requests: 01903 282803
Fax: 01903 231734
23 Shelley Road, Worthing, West Sussex BN11 4BS (map)
Feedback
We value your feedback about what we are doing well and what
we could do better. Please tell any member of the team, send us
an email or review us on NHS Choices - we listen carefully and
reflect on all comments.
(c) 2008-12 Worthing Medical Group
Template design by Andreas Viklund
Template design by Andreas Viklund
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Taking your complaint further
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 things right and an opportunity to improve our practice.
However, if you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation or our response, you have the right
to approach the Health Service Ombudsman to ask them to carry out an independent review of your
complaint.
The Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
LONDON
SW19 4QP
Complaints Help Line 03450 154033