Dr Adam Mehta and Partners
Four Trees Surgery 118 Malden Road London NW5 4BY
Tel: 020 7813 1600 Fax: 020 7813 1395
Practice Policies
Complaints procedure
Review: Jan 2014
Dr Adam Mehta & Dr Nahran Muallah
Four Trees Surgery 118 Malden Road London NW5 4BY
Tel: 020 7813 1600 Fax: 020 7813 1395
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
The in-house complaints procedure is designed to provide properly authorized
complainants with an explanation of the circumstances surrounding an
adverse event. It cannot address questions of negligence or compensation. If
the partnership considers the complaints procedure is not appropriate in a
particular case, the practice manager will advise how the complaint may be
pursued through other channels e.g. NHS England, Patients Advice and
Liaison Service (PALS) or solicitor.
The goals of the in-house procedure are to provide:
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A clear explanation
An apology where appropriate
Reassurance that steps will be taken to prevent the same thing
happening again.
Care must be taken to ensure patient confidentiality at all times. If you have
any complaint or concern about the service that you have received from the
doctors or staff working at the Four Trees Surgery, please let us know. We
operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS complaints
system for dealing with complaints. This procedure meets the national
criteria.
How to complain
You can make your complaints verbally or in writing to the practice manager
or complete the enclosed complaint form. You can also make a comment or
suggestion either with your identity or unanimously in writing.
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 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 that, please let us have details of your complaint


Within six months of the incident that caused the problem or
Within six months of the date of discovering that you have a problem,
providing that it is within 12 months of the incident.
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What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to have
looked into your complaint within14 working days of the date you raised it with
us. We will then be in a position to offer an explanation or a meeting with the
people involved. When we look into your complaint, we aim to
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Find out what happened and what went wrong
Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned
by organising a face-to-face meeting 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
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you
are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have
his or her permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be
needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of signing this.
Complaining to PALS and NHS England
We hope that, if you have 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.
However, this does not affect your right to approach the NHS if you feel that
you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result
of our investigation.
You should contact PALS on 020 7530 6315 or NHS England PO Box 16738
Redditch B97 9PT Tel: 0300 311 22 33 for further advice.
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Dr Adam Mehta and Partners
Four Trees Surgery 118 Malden Road London NW5 4BY
Tel: 020 7813 1600 Fax: 020 7813 1395
Suggestions, Comments & Complaints
We aim to provide good services for our patients. We would like to hear
your comments, your suggestions or your complaints so that we can try to
make improvements.
We value your comments on how things are running and hope that you
will tell us what you like about the surgery and also any complaints you
may have.
Our aim is to deal with any complaint that has arisen as quickly as
possible and to respond within a response period agreed with you or as
soon as practicable. Your complaint will be thoroughly investigated and we
seek to come to a mutual understanding of what has gone wrong and of
any action that may be needed to put things right.
Complaints are treated confidentially. However it may be necessary for
the doctors and staff to discuss confidential information. They will only do
this as far as is necessary to investigate the complaint.
We ask you to make comments or complaints as soon as possible after
the event, so that it is possible to investigate. Normally this will be within
a few days of the event happening.
Getting help with making a complaint
NHS patients can talk to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
staff or the complaints manager at the local NHS England Area Team.
PALS: Pond Street London NW3 2QG
Tel: 020 7472 6446
NHS England PO Box 16738 Redditch B97 9PT Tel: 0300 311 22 33
It helps us to follow up your suggestion, complaint or comment if it is in
writing but you do not have to use this form if you prefer to set out your
complaint in your own way or speak to someone. Do ask a member of
staff to help you.
Please turn over the page.
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Please use this space to note down your suggestion, comment or complaint.
Continue on a separate sheet if necessary.
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Complainant’s details
Name
Address
Telephone number
Email address (if you
want us to respond to
your
complaint
using
email we can do so. To
consent to our using
email, simply insert your
email address here)
If the complainant is not the patient we must have the patient’s consent
before following up the complaint.
Patient’s details
Name
Address
Telephone number
I authorise the complainant to act on my Patient signature:
behalf in pursuing this complaint and I
agree that pharmacy staff may disclose
confidential information about me, in so far
as it is necessary to do so to answer the Date:
complaint.
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