We welcome any helpful suggestions or constructive criticism to improve the service we offer. We have a suggestion box in reception. Please feel free to put any constructive comments in this box. We are all human and mistakes can happen. Please feel free to discuss any problem with your doctor. Sadly, even with the best medical care some diseases are not preventable or curable. It is also important to note that symptoms at the beginning of an illness can be very non-specific and may not indicate a serious problem. However, sometimes things can change very quickly, and unexpectedly, and if you have ongoing concerns we would want you to make contact again. If you are not happy with the explanation provided to you or you have ongoing concerns, please say so at the time, or come back soon. You are welcome to see another Practitioner for a second opinion. We believe that both our patients and our staff have the right to be treated with courtesy.
The Practice is always open to receiving comments from patients whether these are positive or negative. It is really nice for the team to receive positive feedback but when something doesn’t go as well as it could have, we want to review our processes and change for the better if this is appropriate and so negative feedback has an important part to play.
We have an in-house complaints procedure which is published in this section and we adhere to this with regard to response times etc. Our Practice Manager doesn’t work full time. There are three members of the management team who deal with complaints: Practice Manager, IT & Admin Manager and Quality Co-Ordinator. Each of these members of the management team have a role in dealing with complaints and concerns raised by patients so you may receive a response from one of them if you have reason to make a complaint. We prefer complaints to be made in writing where possible because this allows us to be sure we have fully understood the issues involved and respond accordingly. This can be done by traditional paper-based letter dropped at reception or posted to us or via email to secretary.balmoral@nhs.net. Depending upon the subject that the concern relates to, the management team will often ask other members of the team to lead on the investigation and response eg clinical matters are referred to the clinicians, medication related matters are dealt with by our Pharmacy Technician and Hospital referral related matters are dealt with by the Medical Secretaries. All investigations and responses are overseen by the management team however you may not get communication directly from one of them because they are not always best placed or qualified to respond.
Once a response has been provided, or your concern has been resolved to the best of our ability, it would be duplication to then have communication with the Practice Manager. It is impossible for the Practice Manager to personally respond to every patient who wishes to speak with her due to the hours she works and the workload she carries and this is why we have a process in place to ensure the person responding to concerns and complaints is the person best placed to do so.