Complaints Procedure
Practice Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the optometrist or any of the staff working in any of our practices, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria. You are also reminded that we are part of the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) which deals with complaints about non NHS matters. Their address is shown at the end of this information sheet.
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, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible, ideally within a matter of days or at most a few weeks, because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:
• within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to Mr Stuart Goodman. You may ask for an appointment with him in order to discuss your concerns. He will explain the complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.
What we shall do:
We shall acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we look into your complaint, we shall aim to:
• find out what happened and what went wrong;
• make it possible 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 we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of clinical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of physical and mental illness) of providing this.
Complaining to the Health Authority
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe 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 your primary care organisation, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact the primary care organisation manager
Glenn Mosoph
Complaints Manager
21 Silver Street
Bury BL9 0EN
Telephone number: 0161 762 3127
for further advice. You may also like to contact the Independant Complaints advocacy service (ICAS) for help. Their address and telephone number are as follows:
ICAS
Barnett House
53 Fountain Street
Manchester M2 2AN
Telephone number: 0845 120 3735
Complaining to the OCCS
Complaints about non NHS matters should be addressed to:
The Optical Consumers Complaints Service
PO Box 4685
LONDON
SE1 8YH
Yates & Suddell