Suggestions, Comments and Complaints

Here at Great Bentley Surgery we try our hardest to provide the best service we can with the limited NHS resources we have, but we acknowledge that we do not get everything right for everybody, all of the time.

We welcome feedback both good and bad via our online feedback form as this helps us develop and improve our services. We are always pleased to hear from patients about their experiences.

If you have experienced something that has made you unhappy, then we would particularly like to hear from you, so that we can investigate and if appropriate, put it right.

Please view more information with regards to how to complain

We want to make it as easy as possible to communicate a complaint to us and you can do this a variety of ways as follows:

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have responded as swiftly as possible to your complaint within an agreed timescale from the date you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an full response, an apology if appropriate or a meeting with the people involved. Please be assured that your care will not be impacted by making a complaint.

When we look into your complaint, our aims will be to make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned if you would like this, and take appropriate action wherever possible.

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 their permission to do so.

A letter of consent signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are not able (because of illness or disability) to provide this. Without suitable authority we cannot answer a complaint, however serious.

This does not affect your right to approach the (PHSO) Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman for independent review if you are not happy with the response about your complaint. This must be done within a year of when you became aware of the problem. The PHSO can be contacted as follows:

By post: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP

By phone: Ombudsman’s Helpline on (0345) 015 4033

Online at: www.ombudsman.org.uk