Suggestions, Comments and Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice. We would like to hear from you should you have any suggestions on how we could better our patient’s experiences, and if you are pleased about the service you’ve received you can let us know.

However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.

To pursue a complaint please contact the practice manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately.

Do you have a question or comment about health services?

This information tells you what you should expect from our services and how to contact us.

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS) welcomes your feedback. The patient experience team will support you in sharing your experiences of our services. We know that sometimes things do not always go as expected, but we are committed to learning when we don’t get things right and making services better. Your experience matters and we want to hear from you.

What services does Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS) provide?

We deliver most of the services provided within the community. These include podiatry, district and community nursing, health visiting, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, as well as some specialist services such as continence, diabetes, neuro-rehabilitation and inpatient care at community hospitals.

Our Caring Always Promises

These are our promises to you about how you should feel when you access our services:

  • Welcome and valued and that your care meets your individual needs
  • You have the opportunity to discuss what is going to happen at every stage
  • You understand the choices that you can make about your care
  • Comfortable and safe
  • You know what to expect and how to get in touch
  • Confident you are being looked after by well trained staff with time to care
  • Able to choose how much we involve your family, friends or carers
  • Able to tell us how to improve

For more information visit the NHS website: www.dchs.nhs.uk

Other ways you can share your feedback about our services include:

Healthwatch is an independent voice for the people of Derby and Derbyshire who are able to influence the delivery and design of local services:

Healthwatch Derbyshire

Telephone: 01773 880786
Website: www.healthwatchderbyshire.co.uk

Healthwatch Derby

Telephone: 01332 643988
Website: www.healthwatchderby.co.uk

NHS Choices

How the Patient Experience Team (PET) can help you

Our patient experience team is here to help you with any queries or concerns, if you want to make a comment, suggestion, complaint or pay us a compliment. We are unable to provide medical advice but we can direct you to the right place with your query.

Contact us

DCHS NHS Foundation Trust
Patient Experience Team
Babington Hospital
Derby Road
Belper
DE56 1WH

Telephone: 01773 525119
Office hours: 08:30 – 16:30 Monday to Friday (excl. bank holidays).
Email: DCHST.PatientExperienceTeam@nhs.net

Telling us about concerns or making a complaint

It is important to tell us as soon as possible if you have any concerns about your care or treatment that we have provided. Firstly you should talk to someone directly  involved in your care or you can ask to see the manager of the service or matron.

They may be able to resolve your concerns there very quickly. If your concerns are not resolved or you want to speak to someone who is not involved in your care, you can contact the patient experience team.

We will make sure we have understood what you want to complain about and what you would like to happen for us to put things right. We will also explain to you what we can do to help resolve your complaint. The patient experience team can often help sort out a problem quickly for you.

If your complaint is more serious or complicated, we will carry out an investigation under the NHS complaints procedure. We will write to you within three working days to acknowledge all of your concerns and explain the process we will follow. We also have a complaints and concerns policy which describes our complaints handling processes.

If you are worried about the care or treatment of someone else, for example a relative or friend, you should talk to them before discussing your concerns with us. We will need their permission for you to raise a complaint on their behalf and for us to be able to release information to you.

Making a complaint about other health services

NHS England customer contact centre team can help with any difficulties or concerns you may have in relation to your GP, dentist, pharmacy or optician.

NHS England can be contacted on:
Telephone: 0300 311 22 33
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
Post:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B67 9PT

Getting more support and guidance

Derbyshire MIND is an independent organisation that can offer you free guidance and support through the NHS complaints process if you need more help. They can put your complaint in writing or come to meetings with you. They do not investigate complaints.

Post:

Derbyshire Mind Advocacy Services
Albany House
Kingsway Hospital
Derby
DE22 3LZ
Telephone: 01332 623732
Website: www.derbyshiremind.org.uk
Email: advocacy@derbyshiremind.org.uk

What happens after you have made a complaint?

To put your mind at ease, you should know that making a complaint should never affect the way you are treated or cared for. When we have received your complaint we will complete our investigation and we will agree a timescale for responding to your concerns.

Sometimes our investigations will take a little longer than we would like but we will always keep you updated on our progress. When the investigation is completed you will receive a written response which answers your complaint and tells you about any learning and actions we have put in place to make things better.

What to do next if you are unhappy with our response to your complaint

We want to resolve concerns and complaints by working with you. If you remain unhappy please get back in touch with us by contacting the patient experience team.

If there is nothing further we can do, you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to review your complaint and the way in which it has been handled. You can get in touch with the PHSO by writing to:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0345 015 4033

Are we accessible to you?

We want to make sure all information can be easily accessed by everyone. All publications and documents are available on request in other formats (for example, large print, easy read, Braille or audio version) and languages.

By clicking on this icon on our website, it can read text out loud to people with eyesight difficulties, make text larger to suit your needs and translate information into a language that you would understand. For free translation and/or other formats please call 01246 515224 or email: DCHST.communications@nhs.net

Please note: this publication is also available in other formats upon request.

Become a member

Do you know you can become a member of our Trust and get involved in helping to shape the future of your local health services in your area? As a member you can:

Show your support for services provided by DCHS

Receive regular information about our work

Be consulted on any changes we propose to make to our services

Stand for election as a Governor to help decide how the Trust is run

For more information visit the NHS website: www.dchs.nhs.uk