NEWS

The care you receive from a GP is usually very good and most people don’t have any problems. But occasionally things can go wrong. This page tells you where to start when you want to sort out a problem with a GP.

What you might want to complain about?

You can make a complaint about any aspect of a GP’s care. Here are just some examples of when you might want to complain, but remember that you could complain about something a GP did or didn’t do, even if it isn’t on this list:

• not being able to get an appointment to see your GP. The government target is that you should be able to get an appointment for an urgent medical problem within 48 hours
• an incorrect diagnosis
• incorrect treatment
• problems with your GP out-of-hours service
• there’s been an unreasonable delay in diagnosis or treatment
• there’s been an unreasonable delay in telling you the results of tests
• your GP ignores important symptoms
• bad communication
• your GP doesn’t provide appropriate pain relief
• clinical negligence resulting in personal injury
• the behaviour of staff at your GP surgery
• consent issues. For example, you weren’t given information about the severe side effects of a certain medication so you weren’t able to make an informed choice about consenting to the treatment
• discrimination, for example, you’re not given proper treatment because of your disability. This is against the law
• lack of patient confidentiality. For example, the GP receptionist refuses to make you an appointment unless you tell them what is wrong with you. You’re concerned by this, because everyone else in the waiting room can hear
• errors in medical records, or loss of medical records
• a refusal (or an unreasonable delay) to provide information about your medical condition for things like a benefits or insurance claim, or when information is requested by the DVLA so you can drive again
• refusal to make an appropriate referral to a hospital
• delays in passing on information to other professionals
• refusing to prescribe you a drug that you need. But you can't complain if it’s a drug that the GP isn’t allowed to prescribe on the NHS, or if it's a drug which a GP may only prescribe in certain circumstances or for specific patient groups.

Who is responsible for GP services?

It can be confusing to work out who is responsible and who you can raise your concerns with. Most GPs are not employed directly by the NHS. They have a contract to provide NHS services. They employ their own staff and therefore if you have concerns about a member of staff at the GP surgery, you can complain to the GP who employs them. At every GP surgery, there has to be a procedure to deal with complaints, and someone who is responsible for dealing with complaints.

NHS England

NHS England is responsible for a GP’s contract and making sure that GPs carry out the terms of their contracts.

Complaints to NHS England

Any user of the organisation, their family, carers, or members of the public, can ask for advice, raise concerns or make a complaint about:

• any of the services that NHS England buys or commissions
• any of the policies and procedures NHS England has developed, or any of the functions they carry out.

If you have a complaint about NHS primary care services, you can either complain directly to the organisation providing the services, or to NHS England who commissions the service. For example, you may not feel comfortable about complaining directly to your GP, so you could complain to NHS England instead.

NHS England will use the same NHS complaints procedure that your GP or the CCG would use.

If the complaint involves more than one NHS body, they will decide which is the most appropriate body to take the lead in co-ordinating the complaint and communicating with you about it. They will ask your permission before they pass the complaint to another body or forward it to the provider of the service you’re complaining about. If you don’t give your permission, they may not be able to investigate your complaint.

Contact details of NHS England

You can write to NHS England at:

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

Or email them at: england.contactus@nhs.net. Put ‘For the attention of the complaints manager’ in the subject line.

Phone: 0300 311 22 33

When they get a copy of your complaint, they will take a note of your complaint and arrange for it to be passed to a case officer who will take the lead in the investigation.