Plowright Medical Centre is always looking for ways to improve the services it offers to patients. To do this we need to know what you think about the services you receive. Tell us what we do best, where we don’t do so well, plus any ideas and suggestions you may have for improvements. Only by listening to you we continue to build and improve the service we offer you.

For all suggestions, comments and complaints please fill out our feedback form.

Complaints

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person 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 – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks. 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:

• Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem, or
• Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem

Complaints should be addressed to our practice manager, or any of the doctors. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days. The NHS complaints regulations do not require complaints to be investigated within a set timescale but instead we will agree an individual timescale with you and the services involved. This will depend on what your complaint is about and how complex it is. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. 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, if you would like this;
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf to 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.

Who else may you complain to?

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. But this does not affect your right to approach people outside the practice, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us.

You should contact the complaints manager at the Norfolk & Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Please contact:

In writing:

The Complaints Manager,

NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB,

County Hall, Martineau Lane,

Norwich,

NR1 2DH

Telephone: 01603 595857 (This is an answer machine service. Please leave a message requesting a call back)

Email:  nwicb.complaintsservice@nhs.net

Please state: ‘For the attention of the complaints manager’ in the subject line.

For more information about NHS Norfolk and Waveney’s Complaints process, please visit their website at www.improvinglivesnw.org.uk.

Please note that you cannot raise the same complaint to both organisations.

What do I do if I am unhappy with the outcome of my complaint?

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint from the surgery or NHS England, you should contact the Ombudsman and request they investigate the complaint.