If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.
We want to provide the best possible service, and your comments will help us to know how we are performing.
Please ask to speak to the Practice Manager or if you would prefer, write to us with your concerns/comments. Our complaints system meets national criteria. We aim to at least acknowledge your comments within two working days and to let you have a response within 10 working days. See full details of the complaints process - Complaints Leaflet
The practice fully supports the NHS Zero Tolerance Policy. The aim of this policy is to tackle the increasing problem of violence against staff working in the NHS and ensures that doctors and all other staff have a right to care for others without fear of being attacked or abused either physically or verbally.
We understand that ill patients do not always act in a reasonable manner and will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint. We ask you to treat your doctors and all other staff courteously and act reasonably.
All incidents will be followed up and, if the practice deems necessary, you will be sent a formal warning after a incident or, potentially, removed from the practice list after a subsequent incident, if your behaviour remains unreasonable.
However, aggressive behaviour, be it violent or verbal abusive, will not be tolerated and will result in you being removed from the practice list and, in extreme cases, the police will be contacted if an incident is taking place and the patient is posing a threat to staff or other patients.
Removal from the practice list
A good patient-doctor relationship, based on mutual respect and trust, is the cornerstone of good patient care. The removal of patients from our list is an exceptional and rare event and is a last resort in an impaired patient-practice relationship. When trust has irretrievably broken down, it is in the patient’s interest, just as much as that of the practice, that they should find a new practice. An exception to this is on immediate removal on the grounds of violence e.g. when the Police are involved.
Removing other members of the household
In rare cases, however, because of the possible need to visit patients at home it may be necessary to terminate responsibility for other members of the family or the entire household. The prospect of visiting patients where a relative who is no longer a patient of the practice by virtue of their unacceptable behaviour resides, or being regularly confronted by the removed patient, may make it too difficult for the practice to continue to look after the whole family. This is particularly likely where the patient has been removed because of violence or threatening behaviour and keeping the other family members could put doctors or other staff at risk.