Complaints Procedure

At The North Bristol Private Hospital we pride ourselves in delivering outstanding, professional customer service and the highest level of care to all of our patients. Our priority has always been care centred on you and your needs. We aim to treat all of our patients with the utmost care, compassion and respect. However, there may be times when the service that you have received does not meet the high standards that we aim to deliver.

Should this happen, the most effective way to resolve any concern is by letting the Clinic Operations Manager or a member of the clinic team know immediately after the service or treatment that you have received. They will listen to your concern and aim to resolve your complaint efficiently and effectively. If you require assistance with making your complaint, we will be pleased to help and support you through the process.

It is best to make your complaint as soon as possible, as memories will be fresher and it will be easier to investigate the facts. You should normally make your complaint within six months of the incident you are concerned about. The North Bristol Private Hospital may be willing to investigate complaints after this time where there is a realistic opportunity of conducting a fair and effective investigation and if you have a good reason as to why you could not act sooner.

We will always aim to resolve your complaint as soon as we receive it however where this is not possible, the complaint will be investigated by the Clinic Operations Manager, and you will receive an acknowledgment of your complaint within 3 working days. This may be by email, letter or telephone.

The Clinic Operations Manager will provide you with a written response within 20 working days from the acknowledgment of your complaint however, if the complaint is of a complicated nature, it may take longer to investigate and in this case, we will be kept informed of any expected delays.

You may be asked to attend the clinic for an assessment with a nurse or a Doctor as part of the investigation.  If necessary, we will contact you to arrange this and following your appointment, you will receive an outcome of your complaint within the timescales detailed above.

If you are not happy with the response that you have received from the Clinic Operations Manager, your complaint may be escalated to our Senior Management Team as per stage two of our complaints policy. Your complaint will be acknowledged by a member of the Senior Management Team and a full response will be provided following an investigation within 20 working days should the investigation take longer than this the complainant will be updated every 20 working days.

Should you remain unhappy with our final response or investigation, you may be able to refer your complaint to either the Cosmetic Redress Service at www.cosmeticredress.co.uk for non surgical complaint or www.clinicalconsultingve.co.uk for surgical complaints. You must do this within six months of the date of the final response.

Reference number – PCP / KLC
Version – 004
Author – Kelly Cavallo
Date ratified – 29th December 2022
Committee / individual responsible – Governance Committee
Issue date – 28th June 2023
Review date – 8th May 2024
Review date – September 2024
Next Review – 8th May 2025

AIM:

To ensure an effective working model for complaints management, including written procedures and guidelines for handling and investigating complaints, is implemented within the hospitals.

To ensure that all patients, their family and other service users have open and easy access to the Complaints Procedure.

RATIONALE:

The effective and timely management of any complaint must be considered a vital component of Customer Care.

All patients, their family and other service users must have access to the Complaints Procedure, to enable feedback; both positive and negative ­on the services and care provided by the clinic. The patient and service user are the customer and so have the right to provide that feedback, and must be encouraged to do so

PROCEDURE:

North Bristol Private Hospital undertakes to investigate all complaints courteously, sympathetically, objectively, expeditiously and thoroughly, with a view to obtaining information that results in an honest and balanced resolution to the problem and provides a rapid response and appropriate reassurance for the complainant.

Confidentiality

The names of the patient or complainant shall remain confidential except to facilitate the investigation of a complaint. The names of all staff members or clinicians shall remain confidential except to facilitate the investigation of a complaint. Complaints by a patient representative shall be addressed ensuring that the complainant is a legitimate representative and in doing so with the patient’s knowledge and consent, but also recognising patient confidentiality. If the patient is not able to consent, then the patient’s lawful representative shall be informed.

Verbal complaints

On receipt of a verbal complaint good practice shall be adopted:

• put the patient at ease, be supportive and empathetic
• listen carefully and understand the nature of the complaint
• ensure privacy and a relaxed atmosphere
• emain calm and respectful
• take responsibility for further action and communication

The person receiving the complaint must:

• summarise the complaint to the patient, document this and request approval to resolve immediately if possible
• if immediate resolution cannot be found, explain that the complaint will be investigated, and give time frame.
• Offer the patient the chance to talk to a senior manager

Where there is no reason for delay, the complaint should be dealt with within 5 working days or at the most 20 working days. Responses to serious verbal complaints must be in writing. On completing the investigation, the Registered Manager or a delegated manager will evaluate the investigation and decide the action to be taken. The following data should be entered into the patient complaints register:

• date complaint received
• surname and other names of patient
• type of complaint
• name of person dealing with complaint
• date investigation was completed
• date of final response

Pre-Formal Complaint Process / Social Media Intervention

North Bristol Private Hospital recognises the importance of handling complaints promptly and wishes to try to always resolve complaints quickly and thoroughly without placing too much ownership onto the patient. We wish to steer away from pushing written complaints where concerns and issues can be resolved quicker and without frustration to the patient.

Social Media Response Guidelines:

Stage 1
Patient has posted something of slight concern on social media, after looking into patient notes on pabau we feel comfortable that we do not need to respond and situation is in hand with our team – continue to monitor social media and add to notes

Stage 2
We feel patients post on social media requires a public communication asking the patient to contact a team member and then monitor on socials / add to notes. If the team member cannot resolve or issue is about a team member then we can pass to Registered Manager or start complaints procedure

Stage 3
We publicly comment, private message patient to engage with our team – we will also advise we will arrange for team member to contact patient – at this stage we will add notes and team member and if not resolved by team we would pass to complaints procedure .

Written Complaints

When the written complaint is received, immediately, or at least within 3 working days:

• ensure an acknowledgement to the complainant is made in writing; if the complaint letter is received from someone other than the patient and it relates to clinical treatment, the patient’s written consent to disclose information about his/her case must be requested
• log the details on the patient complaint register
• pass a copy of the letter to the Registered Manager immediately if it is a complaint being made against the hospital from a Solicitor (the letter may be in the form of a request for health records)

The investigation will depend upon the type of complaint. Complaints may be classified as:

• Clinical – Serious harm / death
• Clinical – Minor
• Non-clinical

The Registered Manager should write to the patient explaining the outcome of the investigation within 20 working days (or if the investigation is still in progress, within 5 days of a conclusion being reached). In any event, a ‘holding letter’ should be sent every 20 working days pending a conclusion being reached.

All responses are checked by a director before posting.

Complaint about Treatment, Conduct or Ethics

In the event of a complaint about treatment, the Surgeon/Doctor must respond to the patient in line with the required time frames for response (acknowledge the letter within 2 working days, full response within 20 working days; if resolution is not possible within 20 working days, a holding letter must be sent to inform the complainant). The written response must be sent to the complainant via the company’s Registered Manager and not directly from the Medical Practitioner. Where deemed necessary, the surgeon/doctor about whom the complaint was made has the right to seek advice from his/her Medical Defence organisation or other organisation as deemed appropriate. Any serious complaint about treatment must be forwarded to the Care Quality Commission.

Independent External Appeal or dissatisfaction with the Internal investigation outcome

The preferred outcome of a complaint is a resolution within the clinic. However, if a patient remains dissatisfied after the clinic response, he/she may direct the complaint to the Independent Doctors Forum (if appropriate), or the appointed Independent Adjudication Service.

This should normally be done within 6 months of the date of the event. The reason for this is to ensure that proper investigations can be made whilst the recollection of those involved is still reasonably clear.

North Bristol Private Hospital will ensure that the Independent Adjudicator has access to all documentation relating to the complaint, including correspondence between the clinic and complainant within 14 days of the progression to stage 3. Please note that the CQC do not investigate patient complaints however will collate feedback and contact the hospital for further information should the complaint be of a serious nature or a concern arises.

General

Complaints are unavoidable in all organisations and should be seen as an opportunity for the organisation to improve its care and services to an even higher standard. It is vital that complaints are viewed and used in a positive way and are handled constructively. Records relating to patient complaints for clinical matters are retained for 7 years, and for non-clinical matters, 3 years.

Training

Employees receive virtual complaints training. Advice regarding individual complaints is available from the Director of Clinical Services always.

Complaints Register

A register of complaints, including details of the complaint, results of investigations, action taken and resolution is maintained at a local level by the Registered Manager.

Provision Of Information For Patients:

Information relating to the Complaints Procedure will be made available to all patients, their family and carers, within the Statement of Purpose and patient information poster placed in the waiting area of the clinic on the wall.

The information will include:

• details of the Complaints Process
• how to go about providing feedback or making a complaint
• how the complaint will be dealt with
• how the organisation will communicate with the complainant

The patient, family member or carer will be provided with assistance to utilise the complaint procedure if they request such assistance. Each patient will also be provided with a Patient Feedback form, preferably to be completed prior to leaving the clinic, or if not, they will be provided with details of how to return the completed survey.

Complaints Stages and Independent External Appeals Process

The company recognises that sometimes the complainant may not be entirely happy with the response that they have initially received. The preferred outcome of a complaint is a resolution within the clinic. The complainant may take their concerns through the following 3 stages described below;

Stage 1- Local Resolution
The Patient Care Coordinator or Registered Manager who has the best understanding of the issues involved will handle the complaint at a local level. The clinic team will respond directly to the complainant. This must be recorded on the Complaint Register.

Stage 2- Internal Appeal
The complainant may not be entirely happy with the response that they have initially received. They can request that the complaint be escalated to a Senior Manager who will review the complaint and the response that has been provided. This person will be someone has previously not been involved in the complaint and further independent investigation will be conducted.  This must be recorded on the Complaint Register.

Stage 3- Independent External Adjudication

Non-Surgical Complaints

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the outcomes presented during Stage 2 of the investigation process, then their complaint can be referred to the Independent External Adjudication Service – Cosmetic Redress Scheme as an independent arbitration service. This must be recorded on the Complaint Register.

Surgical Complaints

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the outcomes presented during Stage 2 of the investigation process, then patients are directed to an independent, External Adjudication Service provided through Clinical Consulting VE.  This must be recorded on the Complaint Register.

If a complainant should wish to refer their complaint to the adjudication service, this should normally be done within 6 months of the date of the event. The reason for this is to ensure that proper investigations can be made whilst the recollection of those involved is still reasonably clear. An acknowledgment to any appeal received will be sent within 7 working days of receipt. If we fail to satisfy someone who has made a complaint – even after a separate internal investigation – then we must advise the person making the complaint of their right to inform the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Details of the above available upon request. (Please note that the CQC do not investigate patient complaints, however they will collate feedback and contact the company for further information should the complaint be of a serious nature or if concerns arise).

STAGE 1 – Local Resolution

STAGE 2 – Senior Manager / Theatre Manager / Hospital Director (depending on nature of complaint)

STAGE 3 – NON-SURGICAL COMPLAINT – CRS (Cosmetic Redress Scheme)

STAGE 3 – SURGICAL COMPLAINT – Clinical Consulting VE

Details of the above available upon request. (Please note that the CQC do not investigate patient complaints, however they will collate feedback and contact the company for further information should the complaint be of a serious nature or if concerns arise).

REFERENCES:

Healthcare Commission Guidelines for Complaints Management

Listening, Improving, Responding: a guide to better customer care (DH,2009)

Principles of good complaint handling (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman)