The practice has a complaints procedure based on HSCB guidelines. Patients are encouraged to discuss any grievance initially with the staff member involved in order that any misunderstanding can be clarified. If the patient still feels the need to press the issue they are encouraged to put their complaint in writing and send it to the Practice Manager or Dr Armstrong the practice complaints officer. Receipt of the complaint will be acknowledged in writing within 3 working days and a formal reply will be made within 10 working days. In investigating your complaint we shall aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong
- Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned if desired
- Where appropriate issue an apology
- Identify what we can do to prevent recurrence of the problem.
We hope that this will satisfy any complaints but you have a right to contact the The Deputy Complaints Manager at the Health & Social Care Board, 12-22 Linen Hall Street, Belfast, BT2 8BS (Tel: 028 90553751) if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us. The objective of the Health & Social Care Board is, wherever possible, to restore the trust between the Patient and the Doctor/Practice Staff.
Anonymised copies of patient complaints and the practice response to these complaints are sent to the Health Board for monitoring purposes.
