Practice Complaints Procedure

Stage I

Verbal stage

A simple rapid and open process should be used to deal with problems as they arise.

Any misgivings or misunderstandings will be listened to sympathetically and hopefully resolved.

Lessons learned from complaints should be used to improve patient services.

All complaints MUST be recorded on the Complaints Action Sheet found in the complaints folder.

Stage II

Written Stage

The complaint needs to be written and investigated by the Practice Manager Mrs Gloria Evans, as indicated in the guidelines.

Stage III

Local Health Board

If impossible to resolve at practice level, then the complaint is investigated by the Carmarthenshire Local Health Board (CLHB) the named person to contact is Alison Gittins at

Carmarthenshire Local Health Board,
Unit 5, Parc Dafen,
Heol Cropin,
Llanelli,
Carmarthenshire,
SA14 8QW.
Telephone: 01554 744400
Fax: 01554 744401

They will organize an independent review and may contact The Community Health Council in Carmarthenshire to intervene.

If this is unsuccessful then the case would be forwarded to the ombudsman.

Patient Information Leaflet

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets National criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most complaints can be resolved quickly, often at the time they arise with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a more formal complaint in writing, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days or at the most a few weeks. This will enable us to establish what happened more easily. The period for making a complaint should be no later than twelve months from the date on which the matter occurred (unless it would have been unreasonable to do so.)

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager or any of the doctors. Alternatively you may ask for an appointment with any of the above in order to discuss you concerns. He/she will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that you concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within twenty working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. 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 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 their permission to do so. A note signed by the person or a completed patient consent form in the surgery will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

Complaining to the Local Health Board (LHB)

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 rights to approach the LHB if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or are dissatisfied with the result of our investigations.

You should contact Alison Gittins (Head of Corporate Services) at the Carmarthenshire Local Health Board, Unit 5, Parc Dafen, Heol Cropin, Llanelli, SA14 8QW.
Tel 01554 744400