At the West End Medical Practice, we try to give you the best possible care and treatment. It is useful for us to have your comments – both good and bad – to help us continue to improve the service we provide. If you find yourself unhappy with anything, please let us know.
Please ask for a copy of the “Making a Complaint About the NHS” leaflet if you require any further information or assistance.
Below is a short guide to helping you make a complaint.
- In the first instance, please do not be afraid to ask to speak to the Practice Manager in person or on the telephone. If you do this, we can try to sort out your complaint on the spot.
- If it is not possible, for whatever reason, to speak to the Practice Manager in person, we would request that you put your complaint in writing to the Practice Manager. When doing so, you should include your full name and address, and as much information as possible about what happened, when and where.
- On receipt of the written complaint, the Practice Manager will acknowledge the complaint within 48 hours.
- The Senior Partner deals with complaints of a clinical nature. The Practice Manager deals with complaints regarding administrative or clerical issues.
- We will respond to you within 10 working days of receiving your complaint. In some cases however, we may need more time to give you a full response and will not be able to meet these timescales. If this happens, we will inform you of this and of the reasons why.
- You will get a letter telling you the result of the investigation.
- If you continue to be dissatisfied with outcome of your complaint you are able to raise the complaint further, with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)
Information about the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the final stage for complaints about public services in Scotland. This includes complaints about the NHS in Scotland. If you remain dissatisfied with an NHS board or service provider after its complaints process has concluded, you can ask the SPSO to look at your complaint. The SPSO cannot normally look at complaints:
- where you have not gone all the way through the complaints handling procedure
- more than 12 months after you became aware of the matter you want to complain about, or
- that have been or are being considered in court.
The SPSO’s contact details are:
SPSO
Bridgeside House
99 McDonald Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4NS
Freepost SPSO, (You don’t need to use a stamp)
Freephone: 0800 377 7330
Online contact www.spso.org.uk/contact-us
Website: www.spso.org.uk