Comments and Complaints
Complaints Procedure
If you would like to make a comment or complaint about a service or treatment you, or a member of your family, have received please let us know as soon as possible. A complaint must be made within 12 months from the date on which the matter occurred , or from when the complainant first knew about the matter. However if there is a good reason for the delay then this may still be investigated.
Our reception staff will be able to provide you with a summary of our complaints procedure if you wish.
How do I make an informal complaint?
Please speak to the Practice Manager or the Assistant Practice Manager. This gives you the opportunity to sort out any problems immediately without going through a formal process.
If you do not feel able to make your complaint directly to them, you may contact the Barnsley Patient Advice Liaison Service (PALS) based at Barnsley Hospital (www.pals.nhs.uk). The Officers there will be able to help and advise you.
How do I make a formal complaint?
If you wish to make a formal complaint, please write to the Practice Manager and include the following details:
- Your full name and address
- The name of the person the complaint is about so that records can be found
- The name and work address of the person or service you wish to complain about
- The date the ‘incident’ you wish to complain about happened
- Details of what you are complaining about
If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, you must have the person’s consent.
What will happen next?
The Practice will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days. As per the NHS Complaints Procedure there is now no set timescales in which the practice must respond to a complaint. However if a response is not provided within six months from the date of the complaint, or a later date agreed with the complainant, the Practice Manager will write to the complainant to explain the delay.
If you are unhappy about our response, we can arrange a meeting between yourself, and the relevant staff and a mediator to talk through your concerns.
Occasionally a complaint may still not be resolved at this stage. If so, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (www.ombudsman.org.uk ).
You can also register your complaint with NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre. The contact details are:
By Post: NHS England, PO Box 16738, redditch, B97 9PT
By Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
By Telephone: 0300 311 22 33 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, excluding English bank Holidays)
Comments and Suggestions
We welcome constructive feedback about our services so that we can continually improve patients’ experience. If you, or a member of your family, have a suggestion or comment to make, please address these to the Practice Manager.
What happens if I prefer to complaint directly to the commissioning organisation?
You have the right to make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care, treatment or service and this is written into the NHS Constitution on the GOV.Uk website.
From 1 July 2023 the way members of the public make a complaint about primary care services (by primary care services we mean GPs, Dentists, Pharmacists and Opticians) to the Commissioner is changing. There are two ways you can make a complaint:
1. You can complain to the healthcare provider (our practice procedure is detailed above), this is the organisation where you received the NHS service, for example a GP surgery or dental surgery.
2. You can complaint to the Commissioner of the service, this is the organisation that pays for the service or care you received.
After 1 July 2023 if you want to make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner you will now contact South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care Board instead of NHS England. Their address is 722 Prince of Wales Road, Darnall, Sheffield, S9 4EU or telephone 0114 305 1905.
If you want to make a complaint directly to the provider of the service, you still can and that does NOT change on the 1 July 2023.
Members of the public with ongoing complaints received on/after 1 July 2023 with receive a letter from NHS England informing them that their complaint is being retained by NHS England with confirmation of their case handler.