If you feel aggrieved by the care that you have received, you may wish to make a formal complaint to the healthcare professional, using the complaints process. As from / since 1 April 2009, you can pursue a complaint and a legal claim simultaneously.
On this page:
Complaints against the NHS
If you wish to make an informal complaint against the NHS, you can raise your concerns with a member of staff, or their managers, or a member of the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
If you wish to make a formal complaint, you have 12 months from the date of the event in question to make such a complaint. The earlier that you make your complaint, the better. The NHS may consider your complaint if it is made outside the 12 month time limit, but this varies from NHS Trust to NHS Trust.
You can make your complaint verbally or in writing. We recommend that you put your complaint in writing, addressed to the Chief Executive, setting out the events that have occurred and when, the members of staff involved and what result and answers you want.
The NHS Trust should acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days. They should also offer you the opportunity to discuss your complaint, advise you of the way in which your complaint shall be investigated and provide you with a timescale for providing a formal response to your complaint. Once the NHS Trust has completed its investigations you shall then be provided with a formal written response.
There is no formal time limit for the NHS Trust to investigate and respond to your complaint. If there is going to be a delay in providing the response, the NHS Trust should notify you and agree an extension with you. If the NHS Trust is taking an unreasonable period of time to respond, i.e. more than six months, you may appeal to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
If you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, you can return to the NHS Trust to seek further clarification and request further investigation. Alternatively, you can request an independent review by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is unlikely to review your case, if they consider that more action should be taken by the NHS Trust to resolve your complaint first.
Complaining to the Ombudsman
- A complaint to the Ombudsman should also be made within 12 months of the event in question. However, they will consider complaints outside of the 12 month period if you set out your reasons for the delay, such as the time taken for the NHS Trust to complete its investigation.
- Your complaint to the Ombudsman should include a summary of the events and people/NHS Trusts concerned, with dates, details of the action that you have already undertaken, the response from the NHS Trust, your reasons for being dissatisfied with the response and why you believe that an independent review is necessary.
- The Ombudsman should acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five working days. There is no set time limit for them to complete their investigations, but they aim to do so within 40 days where possible.
- If the Ombudsman upholds your complaint, they can request that the NHS Trust provide you with a formal apology, call for changes within the NHS Trust to prevent the incident occurring again and where appropriate consider financial compensation. If the proposed award of financial compensation is significant, we recommend that you seek legal advice upon this.
If you remain dissatisfied with the Ombudsman’s response, you can request that the matter be reviewed by the special team who review the Ombudsman.
Contact Details
We can assist you with making a complaint.
Your local Independent Complaints Advocacy Services (ICAS) can also assist you with the making of your complaint. You can telephone NHS Direct on 0845 4647 to find out the contact details for your local ICAS.
The helpline for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is 0345 015 4033.
Their address is:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Complaints against your GP, Dentist or a Private Healthcare Professional
You can make an informal complaint to the GP, Dentist or Consultant involved in your care or to the Manager of the organisation.
The next steps:
- If you wish to make a formal complaint, we recommend that you put the complaint in writing. The complaints procedure adopted should be similar to the NHS Complaints Procedure. If the private healthcare professional is a member of The Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS), they should follow its code of practice for dealing with complaints.
- Set out your complaint as described above under the NHS Complaints procedure. If the healthcare professional does not respond to your complaint, you can make a complaint to the Quality Standards Commission.
You should receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within two working days and a formal response within 20 working days.
If you are not satisfied with the response, you can write to the Chief Executive/Director/Manager and request an internal review. You will need to request the internal review within 20 days of receiving the formal response.
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal review, within 25 days of receiving the final response, you can write to the Independent External Adjudication Secretariat for an independent external review. A response should be received within 60 days. If your complaint is upheld, remedial action shall be suggested.
Contact Details
Telephone number for the Independent External Adjudication Secretariat is 020 7379 8598
Their Address is:
The Independent External Adjudication Secretariat
C/o Independent Healthcare Advisory Services
Centre Point
103 New Oxford Street
WC1A 1DU
Complaint to the General Medical Council, General Dental Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council etc
The GMC and similar organisations are regulatory bodies, who maintain a register of all doctors, dentists, and nurses etc who are registered as fit to practice in the UK.
The GMC investigate serious complaints, concerning a doctor’s fitness to continue practicing, including serious misconduct, criminal offences, repeated offences.
The next step:
- A complaint to the GMC or other regulatory body should be made in writing, within five years of the date of the events that cause you concern. You will need to set out a summary of the events and set out your concerns as to why the particular doctor is not fit to continue in practice.
- Upon receipt of your complaint, the GMC will assess whether or not your case calls the fitness to practice into issue. If so, the case is referred to a committee dealing with disciplinary matters and a formal hearing takes place. You may be required to give evidence at the formal hearing.
- Following the hearing, the GMC can order directions to the doctor to undergo further training, order a suspension from the register or restrictions upon the doctor and in the most serious cases, can order removal from the register altogether.
Contact Details
General Medical Council
www.gmc-uk.org
Nursing and Midwifery Council
www.nmc-uk.org
General Dental Council
www.gdc-uk.org
General Optical Council
www.optical.org
General Chiropractic Council
www.gcc-uk.org
General Osteopath Council
www.osteopathy.org.uk
General Pharmaceutical Council
www.pharmacyregulation.org
Other Health Professions Council
www.hpc-uk.org