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Compliments, concerns, comments and complaints
Whether you are happy or unhappy with the care that you have received, please get in touch and let us know your views. Your feedback is important, helping us to find out more about what we’re getting right and what we can improve.
Compliments
We are very pleased to receive your compliments, which highlight areas of good practice and acknowledge the hard work of our staff. If you want to tell us about something that has worked well please contact the Compliments and Complaints Team (details below).
Concerns, grumbles and informal complaints
We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. You can raise your concerns directly with the staff involved initially. This gives you the opportunity to resolve the problem with it going through a formal process. If your concern is about a GP practice, dental practice, pharmacy or optician you can raise it with organisation’s practice manager.
If you prefer, you can contact the Sheffield Patient Services Team (previously known as PALS).
The Patient Services Team will
- Listen to your concerns, suggestions or queries
- Help sort out problems quickly wherever possible
- Guide you to the appropriate place for support or further information
- Advise you on how to make a complaint if the problem is not resolved
Patient Services Team
Royal Hallamshire Hospital
Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2JF
Tel: 0114 271 2400
Email: PST@sth.nhs.uk
Find out more about the Sheffield Patient Services Team.
Comments, concerns and suggestions about our services can also be made online at: https://www.sth.nhs.uk/patients/tell-us-what-you-think.
Formal complaints
If you feel that your concerns cannot be resolved informally you can make a formal complaint. Knowing what you thought went wrong can help us improve services.
It is helpful if you can let us know about your complaint as soon as possible because it is usually easier to establish what went wrong and to sort the problem out if we know about it soon after it happens. There is a time limit for making complaint. Complaints should normally be made within a maximum of 12 months of realising that you have something to complain about.
If you wish you can ask someone else to make a complaint on your behalf. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so and that they are aware that their confidential medical information may be shared with you, and so we will need their consent.
Sometimes people are unable to give their consent due to physical or mental incapacity and in these circumstances a representative can make a complaint for them. We will respond to the complaint unless we think that the representative is not acting in the best interests of the patient.
Children can make complaints and suitable representatives such as parents and guardians can make a complaint on behalf of a child.
You can make a complaint verbally, by email or in writing.
If you wish to make your complaint verbally, please phone the Patient Services Team, tel 0114 271 2400. The Patient Services Team will take some information and pass your details on to the Complaints Manager, who will phone you to discuss your complaint in detail. You can also arrange to meet the Complaints Manager if you prefer.
Written complaints should be sent to
Complaints Team
722 Prince of Wales Road
Sheffield
S9 4EU
Email: SHECCG.Complaints@nhs.net
You can use our complaints form if you wish but you do not have to.
Download the complaints form:
Complaints form (161kb Word)
Help to make a complaint
The Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) provides practical support and information to people who want to make an NHS complaint. http://www.carersfederation.co.uk/icas/.
The contact details for the Sheffield ICAS office are
ICAS Sheffield
Room 9, The Circle
33 Rockingham Lane
Sheffield
S1 4FW
Email: sheffieldicas@carersfederation.co.uk
Phone: 0808 802 3000
Interpreting service
If you need help to make a complaint because English is not your first language, or because you need help to communicate in other ways please let us know.
What happens and how long will it take?
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days and offer you the opportunity to discuss your complaint, either in person or over the phone, if you wish. Discussing your complaint can be helpful as it will enables us to clarify how you would like your complaint to be dealt with and what you think we can do to put things right, and to agree a timescale for investigating your complaint. We try to respond quickly to complaints but sometimes complex issues take time to investigate thoroughly. We respond to most complaints within 25- 35 working days.
We will arrange for your concerns to be investigated by a senior manager (if your complaint is about NHS Sheffield) or by the appropriate clinician or practice manager (if your complaint is about a GP, dentist, pharmacist or optician.
If your complaint is about more than one NHS or Local Authority organisation we will work together to jointly investigate your complaint and provide you with a single written response that covers all of the issues you raised.
Putting things right
If we get something wrong, we will do our best to make amends. We will review our policy and procedures to try and stop it happening again. It is our policy that when mistakes are made we admit them and offer a full apology. It is important that we know about where things have gone wrong in order to put them right and that we share our learning in order to prevent things happening again. We monitor complaints and publish an annual report on how many complaints have been received.
Conciliation
NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group can arrange a conciliation meeting between yourself, the relevant staff and an independent conciliator. The conciliator will talk to both parties and try to help resolve matters for you.
Independent clinical advice
If your complaint involves complex medical issues we might, if you agree, ask a Clinical Advisor to review your complaint. A Clinical Advisor looks at your medical records and other information provided by you and by the staff in your care and can help to identify whether something should have been done differently or whether there is anything that can be learnt from your complaint.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
If you are not satisfied with our response you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to look at your complaint.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Phone: 0345 015 4033
Website: http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
Service evaluation and monitoring
When you are register a concern or a complaint you will be asked to provide personal information.
The information that we collect includes:
- name and contact details
- date of birth
- what the complaint is about
- ethnic group
- whether interpreting or other communication support services are required
- if you are not the complainant, written agreement from the patient to act on their behalf.
We will use anonymised details to consider themes and trends and most importantly, to improve our services wherever possible.
NHS Sheffield assures you that if you make a complaint it will not compromise the care of yourself or anyone else.
If you experience being treated differently as a result of raising a concern or a complaint this should be reported to the complaints team and would be taken up as a serious matter.
Compliments and complaints leaflet
Download the Compliments & Complaints leaflet (132kb pdf, opens in a new window)
NHS Sheffield Compliments and Complaints Policy
For more detailed information download the Complaints Policy. (445kb pdf, opens in a new window)
Using Lay Conciliators
About the role of lay conciliators within the NHS Complaints Procedure
Dispute Resolution Policy and Procedure
NHS Sheffield's Dispute Resolution policy and online competition dispute resolution form
Comments
Comments, concerns and suggestions about our services can be made online at https://sth.nhs.uk/patients/tell-us-what-you-think.
Being Open
NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group is committed to Being Open. Being Open involves apologising and explaining what happened to patients and/or their carers who have been involved in a patient safety incident.
More information about Being Open
Useful links
Carers Federation
The Carers Federation supports carers and the people for whom they care. The organisation provides a wide range of services and useful information, and is managed by a board of carers, former carers and people who use services.
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