Confidentiality policy for patients under 16 years of age

Practice complaints procedure

Tamar Valley Health welcomes comments, compliments, concerns and complaints. We always aim to provide the best care we can. However, we know that sometimes things can go wrong. When this happens we believe that is it often most effective to sort problems out quickly and informally. Please talk to any member of staff if you have a problem or concern.

The NHS complaints procedure is a more formal way of resolving a concern. We want to assure people that they can make a complaint without fear of their care being affected. We believe it is important to understand why things go wrong so that we can prevent such things happening again.

There are two stages to the complaints procedure. The first stage is called ‘Local Resolution’. This is where we work with you to resolve your complaint. If after this, you feel your complaint to be still unresolved you can progress to the second stage by approaching the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for an ‘Independent Review’.

If you would like to make a formal complaint, please contact Miss Kelly Graham, practice patient services manager. You can do this in writing (including email), by phone or in person. The Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) can help you make a complaint if you wish. Please try to make your complaint as soon as possible.

Complaint time limit

There are time limits; normally twelve months after the event you are complaining about (or became aware of the matter for complaint). However, there are exceptions to this and we will always try to help as much as we can.

Making a complaint on behalf of someone else

If you are making a complaint on behalf of another person, we may need to ask that person’s consent before investigating the complaint.

Dealing with the complaint

The complaints manager will discuss with you how you would like your complaint resolved and how long this might take. The person who investigates your complaint may need to talk to other staff and look at your medical records. They will be careful to ensure that any information about you is kept confidential. Your complaint will not be recorded in your medical notes.

We will acknowledge your complaint and how we have agreed to resolve it within 3 working days. We will keep you informed of progress; letting you know of any delays in resolving your complaint. We will usually advise you of the outcome by letter; however we are also happy to meet with you. We will let you know the outcome of the investigation and of action taken as a result. If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have handled your complaint, we would prefer you to tell us. This means that we can discuss if there are any other ways of locally resolving your concerns.