Talk to us.  

The Practice is committed to providing high-quality, person-centred care and treatment that’s both safe and effective. However, we understand that there are times when things go wrong. If something goes wrong, or you’re dissatisfied with what we have or haven’t done, please tell us, and we’ll do our best to make things right. If we can’t resolve matters the way you want, we’ll explain why it’s not possible to do as you suggest. 

Understandably, you might be upset or distressed when formally raising concerns about you or your loved one’s care. Our practice team will treat you with respect and dignity throughout this emotional time. It’s expected that you will show them the same courtesy. 

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 resolving whatever has gone wrong and allowing us to improve our services.   

How Do I Make A Complaint?

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they occur 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 few days or at most a few weeks - as 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 twelve months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within twelve months of becoming aware that you have something to complain about.
• A comment form is available for you to complete with details of your complaint. You do not have to use it if you prefer to set out your complaint in your own way. We can help you to write down your complaint if you feel you need help to do so.

Where possible you should make your complaint in writing to The Practice Management Team.  It would be helpful if you could provide specific details of what you feel went wrong and what outcome you would like.

Can I Complain On Behalf Of Someone Else?

Please note that the Practice must ensure strict adherence to the rules of confidentiality.  If you are complaining on behalf of someone else we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be sufficient, unless they do not have the capacity to do this.

Who to talk to  

If you have any concerns, you can talk to any member of our staff initially. We will work with you to resolve the issue without any formal process. It's usually best to sort out concerns within the practice. However, if you need to make a formal complaint, you can do so through our Practice Manager. 

Submitting a complaint 

If you would like to submit a complaint to the surgery, please complete the online form available here.

What We Will Do Next…

We think it is important to deal with complaints swiftly.  We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and offer to discuss your concerns and agree the way forward with you.  We will investigate your complaint and aim to provide you with our findings within a time frame agreed with you.

When we look into your complaint we will 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 find this helpful;
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• Identify what we can learn from your complaint and what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again in an effort to improve our services.

 If you find it challenging to raise your concerns with us because, for example, there has been a breakdown in the patient-practice relationship, you can raise your complaint with the ICB, who commission and pay for the NHS services you use by:  

Email: at wyicb.pals@nhs.net  

Telephone: 01924 552150*  

*Monday to Friday, 9- 4.30 pm, excluding bank holidays. 

Please note that the team receives many telephone calls daily and may be unable to respond instantly.  

In writing: West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board Complaints Team, White Rose House West Parade, Wakefield WF1 1LT 

Please note: You cannot ask the ICB to consider the same concerns or complaints you raised with us.  

Citizens Advice Bureau  also provides information and advice about making complaints. 

Further Help and Advice

If you remain unhappy after receiving our final reply, you can ask the Health Service Ombudsman to review your complaint independently. 

Before taking this step, we hope you would let us know what aspect of the complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily and provide an opportunity for us to consider whether there is anything further that could be done locally to resolve matters. 

The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS and free to use. It can help resolve your complaint and tell the NHS how to put things right if it has got them wrong. 

The Ombudsman only has legal powers to investigate certain complaints. You must have received a final response from the Practice before the Ombudsman can look at your complaint. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, it will generally not investigate your complaint if it happened more than 12 months ago.