Ellis Practice
The Welford Centre
113 Chalkhill Road
Wembley
HA9 9FX
Tel: 020 8736 7198
www.ellispractice.co.uk	

Dr A Murphy
Dr B Bathia

	
PRACTICE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the Doctors, or any of the staff working in any of our surgery, please let us know.

We operate a complaints procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints, and our complaints system meets national criteria.

At Ellis Practice we take complaints very seriously. We try to ensure that all our patients are satisfied with their experience.  

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 formal complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible.

HOW TO COMPLAIN

Complaints should ideally be written and addressed within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem or within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem.

It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

You should provide as much information as possible to allow us to investigate your complaint such as:

•	Your name, contact details and all necessary details
•	A clear description of your complaint and any relevant times and dates
•	Names and conversation with the people involved
•	Details of any relevant healthcare providers or services
•	Any relevant correspondence, if applicable

We have provided a complaints template we hope you find helpful and should help you to focus on the details needed 

Send your written complaint to:

The Practice Manager 
Ellis Practice, The Welford Centre, 113 Chalkhill Road, Wembley, HA9 9FX or breccg.ellispractice_admin@nhs.net

WHAT WE SHALL DO 

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and devise a plan for investigation and completion.      

When we look into your complaint, we shall 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 like this
Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again

WHAT WE DO NEXT 

We look to resolve all complaints as soon as possible.
Processing a complaint well can take a while, and you might be asked to verify some information at a later stage. You may then receive a formal reply, or you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue. We will let you know, and keep you informed as the investigation progresses.
When looking into a complaint we attempt to see what happened and why, to see if there is something we can learn from this, and make it possible for you to discuss the issue with those involved if you would like to do so.
 
When the investigations are complete your complaint will be determined and a final response sent to you.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they would like to continue the complaint process with your assistance.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter, as otherwise we will be unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing.

We may still need to correspond direct with the patient, or may be able to deal direct with the third party, and this depends on the wording of the authority provided.

OTHER SUGGESTED SOURCES OF ADVOCACY 

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 putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. But this does not affect your right to approach other advocacy sources, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.    

Our aim is to react to complaints in the way in which we would want our complaints about a service to be handled.  We learn from every mistake that we make and we would want to respond to any concerns in a caring and sensitive way.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome

If you are not happy with how we have dealt with your complaint, and would like to take the matter further, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England. It is an independent service which is free for everyone to use. 

To take your complaint to the Ombudsman visit: www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint or call 0345 015 4033.

Contact can also be made with the Ombudsman by Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk or by Fax: 0300 061 4000 

If you would prefer to write, the address is: 

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

Further information about the Ombudsman is available at www.ombudsman.org.uk . 

                                      ELLIS PRACTICE              complaints template
DATE OF COMPLAINT 
		
YOUR NAME
		
YOUR DATE OF BIRTH 
		
YOUR ADDRESS
		
YOUR TELEPHONE NUMBER
		
PATIENTS DETAILS 	IF DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE	
NAME
		
DATE OF BIRTH 
		
ADDRESS
		
TELEPHONE NUMBER
		
SUMMARY OF COMPLAINT
I.E. SERVICE, STAFF, DOCTOR
		
DATE OF INCIDENT 
		
TIME OF INCIDENT
		
PLACE OF INCIDENT
		
IDENTIFY MEMBER(S) FROM PRACTICE
		
FULL DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS
(I.E. THE FACTS SURROUNDING THE CIRCUMSTANCES GIVING RISE TO YOUR COMPLAINT)

		
ANY OTHER COMMENTS

 		

**Please NOTe IF yOU NEED ANY TRANSLATION SERVICES PLEASE LET US KNOW AND THIS MAY INCREASE OUR RESPONSE TIME .