Feedback/Complaints

Portree Medical Centre is committed to providing high quality care and treatment to people in our communities through the delivery of safe, effective and person-centred care. We understand, however, that sometimes things go wrong. If you are dissatisfied with something we have done, or have not done, please tell us and we will do our best to put things right. If we cannot resolve matters in the way you want we will explain why it’s not possible to do as you suggest.

What is a complaint?

We regard a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us or on our behalf.
If you need to complain about something, we encourage you to do so. We also understand that your complaint may involve more than one NHS body or service, or relate to both health and social care services, or it may be about someone working on our behalf. Our complaints procedure covers all of these possibilities.

Who can complain?

Anyone can make a complaint to us. You can complain directly to us, or if you would rather have someone make the complaint on your behalf, we can deal with your representative. This could be a relative, a carer, a friend or any other person that you choose.

You can also get support to make your feedback from NHS Highland (https://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/Feedback/Pages/welcome.aspx) and the Patient Advice and Support Service, which can help you to make your complaint (https://www.cas.org.uk/pass)

If you agree to someone making the complaint on your behalf, it is important for you to know that we will need to ask for your permission for us to deal with that person.

What can I complain about?

You can complain about things like:

– your care and/or treatment

– delays

– failure to provide a service

– an inadequate standard of service

– a lack of information and clarity about appointments

– difficulty in making contact with us for appointments or queries

– treatment by or attitude of a member of our staff

– scheduled or unscheduled ambulance care

– transport concerns, either to, from or within the healthcare environment

– environmental or domestic issues

– operational and procedural issues

– our failure to follow the appropriate process

– your dissatisfaction with our policy.

We realise that it is not possible to list everything that you can complain about. If you want to complain about something that we have not listed above, we encourage you to do so.

What can’t I complain about?

There are some things we cannot deal with through our complaints handling procedure. These include:

– a routine first-time request for a service; for example, a request for an appointment or a request for a specific course of treatment

– a request for a second opinion in respect of care or treatment

– matters relating to private healthcare or treatment

– matters relating to services not provided by or funded by the NHS

– a previously concluded complaint or a request to have a complaint reconsidered where we have already given our final decision

– a complaint made by an employee of the NHS Board or health service provider or other person in relation to their employment contract

– a complaint that is being or has been investigated by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

– a complaint arising from a suggested failure to comply with a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act

– a complaint about which you have commenced legal proceedings, or have clearly stated that you intend to do so, rather than pursue the matter using the NHS complaints procedure.

We also realise that it is not possible to list everything that you cannot complain about. If other procedures can help you resolve your concerns, we will give information and advice to help you.

For more information, please see our complaints procedure.

Complaints Procedure