Reporting, Handling and Management of
Complaints
As a company, Medacs Healthcare prides itself on listening and adapting to our Doctors needs. If you have any suggestions, commendations or cause for complaint, please write to us at our FREEPOST address: Medacs Healthcare, FREEPOST BD2364, The Old Surgery, 49 Otley Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 1BR.
We will endeavour to investigate the matter within 3 days and will write to acknowledge the receipt of your complaint. Senior Managers, at regular Quality Review Meetings, review all complaints received and, if your complaint has not already been resolved before then, you will be informed of the result.
In order to maintain and develop high standards within the NHS, the Department of Health has developed five principles of complaints handling for service improvement. These are:
- Creating professional relationships
- Searching for the truth
- Communicating the truth
- Managing complaints handling
- Facilitating learning from complaints
If you encounter any complaints whilst on a placement, these should be reported to the Complaints Manager or appropriate member of staff at the Hospital who has had the correct complaints handling training. Each Trust will have their own policies for complaints handling which should be obtained from your supervisor. Further information can be found at the Department of Health's website in the section NHS complaints procedure.
Where Medacs Healthcare receives a complaint which relates to you then you will not be allocated to the complainant for the duration of the complaints procedure.
If a complaint involves a serious allegation against you e.g. theft, physical abuse etc, your assignment will cease, until the allegation has been fully investigated. We will then investigate all complaints and where required we will obtain statements from all parties involved before taking any further action and aim to resolve the complaint within 15 calendar days (except where the complaint's nature is such that an investigation would take longer).
Medacs Healthcare will keep a full written record of the nature and details of all complaints received, and the action taken to resolve them. Further to this, Medacs Healthcare operates a system to analyses and identify any patterns of complaints through its quality monitoring and internal audits.
If the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome, they will be advised to state their complaint in writing to the relevant Operations Manager of Medacs Healthcare. The Operations Manager will obtain the full record of the complaint and the investigation, record any additional information and reconsider the matter. The Operations Manager will then provide a written response where possible within 10 working days. Should the complainant remain dissatisfied, they should be advised to contact the Managing Director of Medacs Healthcare. Medacs Healthcare will provide full co-operation with any further investigations undertaken on the complainant's behalf.
Complaints and grevances may initally be written or verbal expressions of dissatisfaction but must be confirmed in writing for Medacs Healthcare records.
Associated Regulations Regarding Complaints Handling
The National Health Service (Complaints) Regulations 2004 (the 'Complaints Regulations') came into force on 30th July 2004. This guidance updates the Complaints, Listening, Acting, Improving: Guidance on Implementation of the NHS Complaints Procedure, issued in 1996.