Formal complaints
Shore Medical operates an in-house complaints procedure as part of the NHS System for dealing with complaints.
Our system meets the appropriate national criteria.
If you have a comment or complaint to make regarding the service and care we provide, we would like to know about it. We will investigate fully any comments or complaints we receive and use the knowledge gained to improve our service to you whenever possible.
You can complete our comments/complaint form by clicking the button below.
Comments/Complaint FormYour comment or complaint may also be made in person, in writing or by telephone to the Practice Manager of your usual Surgery. If you attend in person or telephone, the Practice Manager will write down the details of your comment or complaint and may also ask you further questions so that they are clear of the precise nature of the problem.
All written complaints are acknowledged by our complaints team within three working days.
The Practice Manager will be asked to respond to your complaint making every effort to do so within 10 working days to discuss their findings with you, however pending the outcome of their investigation this may take up to 28 days. If there is likely to be any further delay to this timeline the Practice Manager will contact you to discuss further.
You will be contacted if further clarification on any of the matters you raise is needed.
The Practice Manager may also include a response from a Doctor depending on the nature of your complaint. The response may be given in writing or they may suggest a meeting to discuss the problem in depth. If a meeting is proposed, this would normally involve the Practice Manager and one Doctor for an administrative matter, or two Doctors for a medical matter. We encourage you to bring a friend or relative to the meeting if you wish. Alternatively, you or we might suggest that an impartial third party with experience in dealing with complaints might be present at the meeting.
Shore Medical are not able to deal with questions of legal liability or compensation, these must be channelled elsewhere. For further information please email our complaints team at shoremedical.complaints@dorsetgp.nhs.uk , ask the Practice Manager or contact one of the organisations listed below. Asking Shore Medical to handle a complaint does not affect your right to contact any of the formal organisations to which you are entitled to make a complaint relating to the services we provide, or to seek advice from the Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
Shore Medical cannot respond to and will not normally react to anonymous complaints. If the comment or complaint is made on behalf of another person, we are not able for reasons of confidentiality to discuss details of the problem without the full written consent of that other person. If a meeting is to be held to discuss the problem, we would prefer both the person making the complaint and the person to whom the complaint relates to be present at the meeting if this is possible.