Complaints Handling Procedure

Contents

Introduction
Purpose
Scope
Making a Suggestion
Making a Complaint
Who Can Complain?
How You Can Make a Complaint
Anonymous Complaints
Responsibility
How We Handle Complaints
Time Limits
Further Steps

1. Introduction

As an organisation, we always aim to provide a high standard of care in all our services and work hard to make sure our patients and participants on our courses are treated fairly and with respect. Because of our committed ethos, we want to hear about any aspects of the services our patients or students experience, be it good or bad.

There may be times when things go wrong or you are dissatisfied with the service we provide. Our customer and patient’s views are important to us and help to ensure our services are consistently meeting people’s needs. If you are unhappy with any of our services it is important that you let us know.

2. Purpose

Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. has considered the recommendations from Hard Truths – The Journey to Putting Patients First (October 2013), from the Clwyd review utilised this to consider what constitutes “good complaint handling”. In light of this, the aim of the “Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. Complaints Handling Policy” and the associated “Management of Complaints Received Procedure” is, therefore, to ensure that:

The expectations of the patient and the service user lie at the heart of our complaint handling system.
The complaints system is easily accessible to service users of all abilities and backgrounds.
The importance of patient’s complaints is recognised by all of our staff.
A robust system of processing and investigating complaints is in place and managed by suitably trained staff in order to meet service user’s expectations and regulatory requirements.
A culture of open and non-blame approach is fostered throughout our company in order to be able to deal with complaints effectively and learn important lessons from them.
Service users are assured that Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. as a whole takes their dissatisfaction seriously and that appropriate action will be taken to prevent recurrence of similar incidents and to improve service delivery through lessons learned.
Service users are reassured that no aspect of the care afforded to them by Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. will be compromised by making a complaint.
Early resolution of complaints is achieved in line with the wishes of the service user and the requirements of regulatory bodies.
A robust process of data collection, analysis and triangulation is in place to facilitate the timely and effective sharing of lessons identified to ultimately improve the level of care afforded to service users.
An effective process for the identification of themes and trends from complaints and monitoring of relevant actions is in place aimed at preventing recurrence of incidents and improving patient care.
The complaints handling process meets the requirements of the Accessible Information Standards.

The Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. “Management of Complaints Received Procedure” outlines the processes that the company has in place to ensure the successful achievement of the aims outlined in this Policy statement.

3. Scope

This policy applies to staff and in particular those involved in the handling, reviewing and management of complaints.

4. Making a suggestion

Often people feel more comfortable about suggesting improvements rather than complaining formally. Anyone receiving services, and their friends/ family, may make a suggestion. First you should speak to the Duty Operations Manager for that event or your Training lead if you attending one of our courses.

If the suggestion is something that you feel Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. as a company needs to consider you can send it to: enquiries@rutlandmedicalsolutions.co.uk

5. Making a complaint

We aim to handle complaints quickly, effectively and in a fair and honest way. We take all complaints seriously and use valuable information from investigating to help us improve the service we provide. We treat all complaints in confidence.

Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. assures clients and their families that it will not withdraw or reduce services because someone makes a complaint in good faith, nor will a patient that has raised a complaint be treated any differently.

6. Who can complain?

Anyone affected by the way Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. provides services can make a complaint.

A representative may complain for the affected person if they:

have died
cannot make a complaint themselves, or
have given consent for the representative to act on their behalf

If you are not happy about making a complaint yourself and you do not know someone who can talk or write to us on your behalf, we will be happy to find someone from an independent organisation to act as an advocate for you.

7. How you can make a complaint

Whilst as an organisation, we prefer all complaints and feedback in writing to enquiries@rutlandmedicalsolutions.co.uk, you can complain in person, by telephone, through a member of staff, through an advocate or representative, by letter or by email. Where someone complains orally, we will make a written record and provide a copy of it within 3 working days

8. Anonymous complaints

We deal with anonymous complaints under the same procedure; however, it is better if you can provide contact details so we can tell you the outcome of our investigation.

9. Responsibility

The Managing Director as the Registered Manager has overall responsibility for dealing with all complaints made about their service.

We will provide as far as is reasonably practical:

Any help you need to understand the complaints procedure; or
Advice on where you may get that help.

10. How we handle complaints

The Registered Manager of Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. may ask one of the management team to investigate the complaint. That person will have enough seniority and experience to deal with the issues raised by the complaint.

We will acknowledge a complaint within 3 working days and give you the name and contact details of the person investigating it.

We will keep you informed about the progress of the investigation. We aim to have all complaints finished within 28 working days unless we agree a different time scale with you.

When we have finished investigating, we will arrange to meet with you to discuss the outcome, and write to you with:

Details of the findings
Any action we have taken
Our proposals to resolve your complaint.

11. Time limits

You should complain as soon as you can after the date on which the event occurred or came to your notice. If you complain more than twelve months later, we may not be able to investigate properly. But we shall also consider whether you had good reason for not making the complaint sooner and whether, despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.

12. Further steps

At any stage during the process, if you are not happy with the way the service is dealing with your complaint you can contact the Managing Director at:

enquiries@rutlandmedicalsolutions.co.uk

Once we have dealt with your complaint, if you are not happy with the outcome you can refer your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and ask for it to be reviewed. The LGO provides a free independent service.

You can contact the LGO at:

Tel: 0300 061 0614

Website: www.lgo.org.uk

NB: The LGO will not normally investigate a complaint until the provider has had an opportunity to respond and resolve matters.

Rutland Medical Solutions Ltd. services are registered with and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC cannot get involved in individual complaints about providers, but is happy to receive information about services at any time.

You can contact the CQC at:

Care Quality Commission National Correspondence

Citygate, Gallowgate

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 4PA

Tel: 03000 616161

Web site: www.cqc.org.uk