Our aim is to provide the highest level of care for all our patients. We will always be willing to hear if there is any way that you think that we can improve the service we provide.

Making a complaint

If you have any complaints or concerns about the service that you have received from the doctors or staff working for this practice, please let us know.

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 – because 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 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided that is within 12 months of the incident.

The Practice Manager will be pleased to deal with any complaint and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly.

You can make your complaint:

In writing – please give as much information as you can, then send your complaint to the practice for the attention of the Practice Manager as soon as possible

By email – if you prefer you can email practicemanager.bottreaux@nhs.net

– again please give as much information as possible. Please be aware that when the practice manager is away, emails are not monitored by anyone else. Therefore, it may be sometime before you receive a reply.

What shall we do?

Our complaints procedure is designed to make sure that we settle any complaints as quickly as possible.

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have investigated your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you a written explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.

When we investigate your complaint, we shall aim to:

• find out what happened and what went wrong
• make sure you receive an apology, where appropriate
• identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t 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 of someone else, we must know that you have his or her permission to do so. A consent form signed by the person concerned will be needed unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

What You Can Do Next

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and the opportunity to improve our practice.

However, this does not affect your right to approach NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the way we are dealing with your complaint. If you do feel that you need help or support outside of the practice you can contact the NHS complaints service as follows:

Please write ‘For the attention of the Complaints Manager’ in the subject line.

NHS England
Po Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

Telephone: 03003 112 233

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net

If you have tried the NHS complaints procedure but are dissatisfied with the response to your complaint, contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman at

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Telephone: 03450 154 033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk

Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

The Ombudsman carries out independent investigations into complaints about government departments, their agencies and the NHS.

Help Us Get It Right

We constantly try to improve the service we offer.

Please let us know when you think we have done something well or if you have any suggestions as to how we can do something better.

There is a suggestion box in the waiting room or a suggestions area on our website where these can be made anonymously.

Bottreaux Surgery
Boscastle
Cornwall
PL35 0BG

Telephone: 01840 250209