McVerry / McEvoy Medical Centre

Complaints

Listening …… Acting …….Improving

We operate a practice complaints procedure for dealing with Health Service Complaints. Our procedure meets agreed criteria set for all of the Health and Personal Social Services.

Our receptionists will give you further details. Alternatively, an appointment may be made with our Practice Manager,

Samantha Kenna.

Our practice complaints leaflet is available from reception.

Our aim is to give you the highest possible standard of service and we try to deal swiftly with any problems that occur.

Help us to help you.

Complaints Information Leaflet

Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or are concerned about the Health Service treatment you have received from your doctor or any of the staff employed by this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure to deal with complaints, which meets the criteria agreed for Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services. It does not cover services provided under a private arrangement between the practice and a patient.

The Patient and Client Council can offer support for complainants if required: (Please note the practice must obtain consent from the patient / complainant for information to be shared with the board).

The Patient and Client Council has local offices in Ballymena, Craigavon and Omagh, with its Head Quarters at 1st Floor Ormeau Baths, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS.

Email or Freephone 0800 917 0222

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 in this way and you wish to make a complaint, let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days – as this will help us to find out what happened more easily.

Although you should make your complaint as soon as possible after the event, we can consider complaints made within six months of the date of discovering the problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident. If it is clearly unreasonable in the circumstances to make a complaint earlier, and where it is still possible to investigate the facts of the case, we can consider extending this time limit.

Complaints should be addressed to any of the doctors or Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager, Ms Samantha Kenna, to address your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will assist us greatly if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What We Will Do

We aim to acknowledge your complaint, if appropriate, within 3 working days. We will aim to have investigated your complaint and responded within 10 working days unless we need to involve a third party in which case it may take longer. Once this has been done we should be in a position to offer you an explanation or a meeting to discuss the investigation.

If submitting a formal complaint an anonymous copy (including all correspondence) will be forwarded to the Health Boards Complaints Department.

In Investigating your complaint, we 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 receive an apology, where this is appropriate, and
  • Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t reoccur.

Complaining to your Health and Social Services Board

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our Practice Complaints Procedure. We believe this will afford the best opportunity to rectify whatever has gone wrong and improve our practice. This does not affect your right to approach your Health and Social Services Board, if you feel you can’t raise your complaint with us or are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact the Boards Complaints Officer at:

Complaints Department

Eastern Office

12 – 22 Linenhall Street

Belfast

BT2 8BS

Complaining to the NI Commissioner for Complaints (Ombudsman).

Failing all resolution you can contact the NI Commissioner for Complaints (Ombudsman). Details on complaining about public services and contact details for the NI Commissioner for Complaints can be found on this website:

Making a Complaint on behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we adhere strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have his or her permission. A note signed by the person bringing the complaint and witnessed by the patient will be needed. If this is not possible, the next of kin should bring the complaint.

Complaints Made By GPs

GPs are also entitled to complain about a patient if they feel that the patient is being unreasonable or their conduct is causing particular difficulties for the practice. If you are the subject of a complaint, we hope that any concern or misunderstanding can beaddressed by talking to the GP or the member of staff in question.