Compliments, comments and complaints

Let us know your views

• Did the GP or Nurse look after you well?
• Were our staff helpful and courteous?
• Did the Medical Practice meet your expectations?

Steyning Medical Practice is always looking for ways to improve the services it offers to patients. To do this effectively, the practice needs to know what you think about the services you receive. Tell us what we do best as well as where we don’t meet your expectations plus any ideas and suggestions you may have. Only by listening to you can the practice continue to build and improve upon the service it offers.

If you make a complaint it is practice policy to ensure you are not discriminated against, or subjected to any negative effect on your care, treatment or support.

Tell us about our service

If you would like to leave a comment, please contact us or use the NHS website.

Making a complaint

In the first instance, please discuss your complaint with the staff member concerned. Where the issue cannot be resolved, please contact the Practice Manager, Sheila Lidbetter, who will try to resolve the issue and offer you further advice on the complaints procedure. If your problem cannot be resolved at this stage and you wish to make a formal complaint, please let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days. This will enable the practice to get a clear picture of the circumstances surrounding the complaint.

If it is not possible to raise your complaint immediately, please let us have details of your complaint within 6 months of the initial incident or within 6 months from when the complaint comes to your notice.

The Practice will acknowledge your complaint within three working days.

When the practice looks into your complaint it aims to:

• Ascertain the full circumstances of the complaint
• Make arrangements for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
• Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
• Identify what the practice can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that the Steyning Medical Practice keeps strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality.

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, the practice needs to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be required, unless they are incapable of providing this due to illness or disability.

Complaining to other authorities

The practice management teams hopes that if you have a problem with the service you have received, that you will use the Practice Complaints Procedure and discuss the matter with us in the first instance. However, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, you can contact the following official body:

NHS England

Ombudsman & ICAS

The Advocacy Service for NHS complaints is a national service that supports people who want to make a complaint about their NHS Care or treatment. Your local service can be found on POhWER

Ombudsman

If you have not received a satisfactory response from this practice, your local Clinical Commissioning Group, or NHS England, you can then refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who investigates complaints about the NHS in England.

You can call the Ombudsman’s Complaints Helpline on: 0345 015 4033 

Contact the Ombudsman online

Healthwatch

Healthwatch are independent national champions for people who use health and social care services. They are interested in the views and experiences of patients and what improvements they think could be made.

Tel: 0300 0120 122

Visit the Healthwatch Sussex website