Complaints and feedback

Complaints Procedure – For Patients

If you have a complaint or concern about the service 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 system meets national criteria as laid down by the NHS.

How to Complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and directly with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be resolved 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 this, please let us have details of your complaint:

within 12 months of the incident that is the cause of the problem; or
within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem,

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of patient medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else we have to be assured that you have his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the patient concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

What You Should Do

Complaints should be either addressed to The Practice Manager, Swavesey Surgery, 58 Boxworth End, Swavesey, CB24 4RA or emailed to admin.swaveseysurgery@nhs.net

Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. They will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

Our Commitment to You

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and a full written response will be made within 20 working days of receipt, or where the investigation is still in progress, will write to the complainant explaining the reason for the delay and supply a full response within 5 days of a conclusion being reached. When we look into your complaint, we aim to:

find out what happened and what should have happened.
make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned if this is your wish.
ensure the complaint is resolved to your satisfaction.
make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
identify what needs to be done to ensure the problem does not arise again.

Our Principles are

to get it right
to be patient focussed
to be open and accountable
to act fairly and proportionately
to put things right
to seek continuous improvement

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our Practice Complaints Procedure to ensure it is resolved. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.

If your complaint is not resolved by the Practice it can be referred to :

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Service, Patient Experience Team. https://www.cpics.org.uk/patient-experience-team

You can contact the Patient Experience Team for free via 0800 279 2535, or by emailing cpicb.pet@nhs.net. The team works Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. If you call our freephone number and receive our answerphone message, please leave your name and telephone number so the team can return your call.

If your complaint is about a hospital or other NHS organisation, you can contact:

the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) or complaints department.

There is information about feedback and complaints on the NHS Choices website. www.nhs.uk

The Patient Experience Team (PETS) provides