Suggestions & Complaints

We are very proud of the practice and it's facilities, our practice team and their achievements.  We hope that you find our services efficient, friendly and relevant to your needs. 

We are however only human and if you feel we have not achieved the high standards which you expect, a formal complaints system is in operation and a member of the team will explain this to you. 

A practice complaints leaflet is available at reception (and listed below) explaining how to complain.  The complaints manager is Mrs Ann Wilson.

We aim to maintain a high quality service while keeping up with a changing world.  We would welcome any suggestions you may have for improvement. 

Cadzow Health Centre, Hamilton (Apr 17)

How to Complain

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 this way, and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know, in writing as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks, as this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do this please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 6 month of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident

Complaints should be made in writing to the  Practice Manager or by e-mail via this website (see link at bottom of page) or to anne.wilson4@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk.  You may ask for an appointment with Mrs Wilson, following receipt of your letter of complaint, in order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be of great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What We Shall Do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to have  resolved your complaint within 5 working days of the date of receipt of your letter of complaint.  For more complex complaints, (sometimes called stage 2 complaints) we aim to have resolved your complaint within 20 working days.   We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint we shall aim to:-

• Find out what happened and what went wrong
• Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
• Ensure you received 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 their permission to do so. A Mandate signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable because of illness of providing this.

We hope that if you have a problem you will make use of our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.   This does not affect your right to approach the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman, if you feel that you cannot raise your complaint with us, or if you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.

Advice

You can seek advice from the Patient Advice & Support Service - www.patientadvicescotland.org.uk This is an independent service which provides free, accessible and confidential information, advice and support to patients, their carers and families about NHS healthcare.

If You Are Still Not Satisfied

If you are still dissatisfied after the NHS complaints procedure has been exhausted, you can ask the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman to investigate your case. The Ombudsman is completely independent of both the NHS and Government. The SPSO cannot normally look at:

> a complaint that has not completed our complaints procedure

> events that happened, or that you became aware of, more than 12 months ago

> a matter that has been or is being considered in court.

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