Feedback & Complaints

We value feedback and encourage you to make any suggestions to improve our service. We encourage you to join the activities of the Patient Group and to answer our regular surveys as well as the ‘Friends & Family Test’ whenever you visit or use our service – available online or on the surgery Patient Kiosk and you an add comments to NHS.UK, Iwantgreatcare and any other ratings sites.

You can email us any ideas or suggestions you have for improvements you wish to see and please consider joining our Patient Group.

We all thrive on positive feedback, so it benefits our hard-working staff to be told when things have gone particularly well.

If things go wrong, please let us know as soon as possible, informally at first is often best or if you prefer you may raise an official complaint. We view complaints as useful learning exercises and when something has gone wrong it gives us a chance to look at our processes and places and make changes, so we welcome constructive criticism.

We can all learn from things which go wrong and we welcome constructive criticism and justifiable complaints. We fully investigate all complaints and review processes and procedures when we investigate a complaint. Ms Amanda Ure, our Practice Manager, manages complaints and Dr Selwyn investigates those with a clinical component.

Practice Complaints Procedure

We can all make mistakes and we’ll admit when we screw up and will try and make amends as soon as we can. It is usually best to tell someone close to the cause of your complaint – a doctor, nurse, receptionist, or manager, for example – and as soon as possible. In most cases, we can sort out the problem straight away.

If you are still unhappy you may make a formal complaint. This can be verbal or written – in person, by telephone, letter or e-mail (please add subject header ‘complaint’). It would be useful if you can tell us the outcome you wish to achieve.

Complaints should be made within 12 months of the incident or the incident coming to your attention.

You may complain about something concerning you or someone else; however, if it involves another person we’ll need their signed consent to respond as it will involve confidential information.

The person responsible for handling complaints is the Practice Manager.

1. Local Resolution:

• Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 days either verbally or in writing.
• The Practice Manager may need to speak to you to clarify certain aspects; often a meeting is helpful at this stage.
• The matter will be discussed with members of the team involved and after suitable investigation a response will be made.
• You may be offered a full written explanation of what happened and / or a meeting to discuss it.
• The complaint will be investigated and answered as soon as we can – the official NHS timescale is “within 6 months” but usually is within four weeks, often quicker. You should be given an indication of the likely time, which depends on the complexity of the matter and if there are any unfrozen delays such as people on leave.

2. Referral to Ombudsman:
If you are still not happy with the outcome of this Local Resolution process, you may apply to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, who is independent of the NHS and government (Tel: 0345 015 4033).

Alternatively, you can complain to the commissioner of our service, NHS England.

If you need advice or help making your complaint you can contact Brent Healthwatch (Tel: 0203 598 6414) or the Brent Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service (Tel: 0203 553 5960).

Wider NHS Complaints Procedure

This is to help you if you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of the wider NHS (i.e. hospitals or clinics, not Willow Tree Family Doctors). NHS.UK has details.

1. Local Resolution:

• As above, wherever possible, you should tell someone close to the cause of your complaint – a doctor, nurse, receptionist, or manager, for example. In many cases, it should be possible to sort out the problem straight away.
• If you don’t want to talk to someone who has been involved with your care, you can write to or telephone a complaints manager. All NHS hospital trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – for community services – have a complaints manager who can advise you. GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacies should also have someone who oversees their complaints procedure. If you are not sure who to contact, get in touch with your local CCG, phone NHS 111 or ask at the surgery.
• You can ask the Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALs) office at the hospital trust or CCG for information and help on using their complaints procedure.There is also a PALS national website. Alternatively, you can telephone NHS 111 for advice. Click here to find the PALS contact details for any NHS health provider.

2. Referral to Ombudsman:
If you are still not happy with the outcome of this Local Resolution process, you may apply to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, who is independent of the NHS and government. Call 0345 015 4033

Alternatively, you can complain to the commissioner of that service – if your complaint is about primary care services such as GPs, dentists, opticians or pharmacy services then contact NHS England and if your complaint is about or for hospitals, clinics, mental health services, out of hours services and community services such as district nursing, contact Brent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). If your complaint is about public health organisations (those who provide services which prevent disease, promote health and prolong life), contact your Brent Council.

If you need advice or help making your complaint you can contact Brent Healthwatch (Tel: 0203 598 6414) or the Brent Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service (Tel: 0203 553 5960).