Suggestions, Comments, and Complaints

Complaints procedure

If you would like to make a complaint, please do so in writing addressed to the manager (Michaela Campbell) as soon as possible after the event.

Please use our Feedback Triage to contact the practice directly or email the surgery on wheatfield.surgery@nhs.net with your relevant personal information.

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 3 working days and aim to have looked into the matter within 10 working days. When the investigation takes place, you may be invited to meet with the person(s) concerned to attempt to resolve the issue.

We will keep you informed as the investigation progresses and once complete, your complaint will be determined and a final response will be sent to you. If you are dissatisfied with the response, you have a right to escalate the matter further. If you wish to approach the Ombudsman, the contact details are as follows:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Tel: 0345 0154033

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk 

If you are a registered patient, you are able to complain about your own care. You cannot complain about someone else’s treatment without their written consent.

You may also approach PALS for help or advice. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is based at NHS Bedfordshire to provide confidential advice and support, helping you to sort out any concerns you may have about the care we provide, guiding you through the different services available from the NHS

NHS Bedfordshire
Gilbert Hitchcock House
21 Kimbolton Road
Bedford MK40 2AW

Praise procedure

If you would like to praise the surgery as a whole or an individual staff member, please do so by one of the following:

This will then be discussed at our next Clinical Governance meeting in which all staff members attend. We appreciate all praise that we receive from patients as well as other organisations.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

We keep to the strict rules of medical and personal confidentiality. If you wish to make a complaint and are not the patient involved, we will require the written consent of the patient to confirm that they are unhappy with their treatment and that we can deal with someone else about it.

Please ask at reception for the complaints form which contains a suitable authority for the patient to sign to enable the complaint to proceed.

Where the patient is incapable of providing consent due to illness or accident it may still be possible to deal with the complaint. Please provide the precise details of the circumstances which prevent this in your covering letter.

Please note that we are unable to discuss any issue relating to someone else without their express permission, which must be in writing, unless the circumstances above apply.

We may still need to correspond direct with the patient, or may be able to deal direct with the third party, and this depends on the wording of the authority provided.