Suggestions and Complaints

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Here at Greenway Community Practice we take pride in our friendly, approachable and professional service.

If you have recently been especially happy with the service we provide, we would love to hear your feedback. You can do this by filling out our short Friends and Family test.

Complaints

At Greenway Community Practice, our clinical and administrative teams are committed to providing the best possible care and services to our patients. We recognize the importance of maintaining and improving our service at the practice and understand that patient feedback is imperative in achieving this.

Most issues are dealt with in a timely manner, often at the time they arise with the person involved and we aim to resolve any issues you have informally in the first instance. Where we are not able to resolve your complaint in this way and you wish to make a formal complaint you should do so, in writing or by email via our secure online form, as soon as possible after the event, this helps us to assess the issue appropriately and accurately. We will then be happy to do our best to resolve this with you, as soon as possible and in line with our complaints procedure.

The Practice has established a complaints procedure in line with the latest NHS guidelines.

For details on our complaints procedure and where else you may complain to, please see our complaints policy below

Patients who make a complaint will not be discriminated against or be subject to any negative effect on their care, treatment or support.

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)

The Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has a responsibility to commission the best possible health treatment and care for the local population. Services the CCG commissions for you include:

Podiatry
Community Nursing
Community Learning Difficulty Services
Hospital Treatment
Occupational Therapy
Community Physiotherapy
Community Dietetics
Mental Health Services

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is confidential and provides an approachable, easily accessible route into all areas of the NHS to raise queries, concerns or compliments.

Telephone: 0800 073 0907 or 0117 947 4477
Email: bnssg.pals@nhs.net

PALS
Suite 15, Corum 2
Crown Way
BS30 8FJ

If you email or write to us, it is helpful if you include a telephone number with your letter or email so you can be contacted as quickly as possible.

Complaints Policy

The Practice will take all reasonable steps to ensure that their staff are aware of and comply with this Procedure as part of mandatory training.
The Practice has nominated the practice manager as its Complaints Manager, to be responsible for managing the procedures for handling and considering complaints in accordance with the Policy and Procedure.
The Practice has nominated Dr Sarah Cleverly as its Responsible Person, to be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Policy and Procedure, and in particular ensuring that action is taken if necessary in the light of the outcome of a complaint.The frontline member of staff dealing with day to day complaints is Ellie Baynes. She will escalate to the practice manager or responsible person if a formal complaint follows the initial contact. The Practice will take all reasonable steps to ensure that patients are aware of: The Complaints and Comments Procedure & The roles of the Practice, NHS England and the Health Service Ombudsman with regard to patient complaints. This includes the alternative facility for the patient to complain directly to NHS England instead of making their complaint to the Practice, as well as their right to escalate their complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman when they are dissatisfied with the initial response.
The Practice Complaints and Comments Patient Information Leaflet, the Practice Patient Information Leaflet and the Practice Website will be the prime information sources for implementing this Policy and will be kept up to date and be made freely available to all Patients.
All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Patients who make a complaint will not be discriminated against or be subject to any negative effect on their care, treatment or support.
Where a complaint investigation requires access to the patient's medical records and involves disclosure of this information to a person outside the Practice, the Practice Manager (Complaints Manager), will inform the patient or person acting on their behalf.
The Practice will maintain a complete record of all complaints and copies of all related correspondence. These records will be kept separately from patients' medical records. It will not be recorded in a patients medical records.

Complaints Procedure

Receiving Feedback

There are a series of steps that you need to undertake if you are the person receiving feedback in any form.

acknowledge feedback openly and honestly, try not to feel defensive and let the patient talk.
clarify the nature of the problem ‘What did this mean for you?’
show that the information has been listened to and understood
establish the outcome looked for ‘what would you like to see happen’
discuss the concerns with the patient
provide an honest and objective response, share learning and what will change as a result of their complaint.

Receiving Complaints

There are a series of steps that you need to undertake if you are the member of staff that a complaint is made to.

ensure that the patient's immediate health care needs are being met
listen to their concerns and check that you understand the problems
ask the complainant what they want to happen as a result of the complaint to establish whether those expectations can be met. If they can’t, it is important to say so up front to minimise disappointment
establish that the person raising the concern wants the matter dealt with under the NHS Complaints Procedure by explaining the process to them. This may mean signposting the person to Bev Shadbolt, Kate Barnes, or Anna Collenette
decide whether the matter can be responded to within 3 days - if not advise the complainant that they will receive an acknowledgement within 3 days
if the complaint is made on behalf of somebody else, you will need to check if they have the necessary consent of the patient
check the complainants preferred method of communication
contact Bev Shadbolt (or Kate Barnes or Anna Collenette) to discuss

Remember the following:

Reflect – stop and think about the situation
Regret – give a sincere and meaningful apology
Reason – if you know, explain why something has happened or not happened and if you don’t know, say that you will find out
Remedy – what can you do to try to resolve the situation

Initial action upon receipt of a complaint

All complaints, whether verbal or in writing must be discussed with Bev Shadbolt and forwarded immediately to the Practice Manager or, if unavailable, to the responsible GP.
Where the complaint is made verbally, a written record will be made of the complaint
A written acknowledgement of the complaint must be made within 3 working days of receiving the complaint.
This written acknowledgement will include:
The name and contact details of the Practice member of staff who will be investigating the complaint
The response period within which the investigation of the complaint is likely to be completed and the full response is likely to be sent to the complainant.

Investigation and response

The Practice will investigate the complaint speedily and efficiently and as far as reasonably practicable, keep the complainant informed of the progress of the investigation.
The Practice will send the complainant a response within 21 days signed by the Responsible person. The response will incorporate:
The written report, including an explanation, apology where appropriate, and any improvement that has been identified.
A statement of the complainant’s right to take their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Complaints Register

To ensure the Practice monitors, handles and reviews complaints in a logical and timely manner, and to keep an audit trail of steps taken and decisions reached, the Practice records all complaints received on a dedicated complaints register found on the Y drive under secure.

Annual Review of Complaints

In line with National Guidance, the Practice will supply the following information:

The number of complaints received;
The issues that these complaints raised and actions taken.
Whether complaints have been resolved
The number of cases referred to the Ombudsman.

NHS.UK

Any complaints placed on NHS.UK (NHS choices) will be responded to within 1 working day with

‘We are sorry you have felt the need to complain about our services. If you could please contact the practice manager they will talk through the complaint with you.'

Mandatory Training

Training will be held on our complaints policy on a 2 yearly basis for all staff.

The difference between complaints and concerns

How would the patient prefer the issue to be dealt with?
Is the patient expressing dissatisfaction?
Is this a one-off or has this issue been raised by others before?
What outcome does the patient want?
Which process will best achieve that?

Complaints	Concerns
Length of time investigation will take	Are straightforward issues you hope can be quickly and locally fixed
Number of issues raised	Have no significant wider implications for patient OR others
Number of departments or organisations involved
Serious implications for patient care (including other patients)
Dissatisfaction with response to feedback

Please see the Whistleblowing protocol if it is a member of staff that has a concern or complaint

Legalities

‘An apology is not an admission of negligence or breach of statutory duty