The aim of LMC Services Yorkshire CIC is to provide benefits to Local Medical Committees and their constituents, General Medical Practitioners and General Medical Practice Teams.

Complaints Policy and Procedure

LMC Services Yorkshire CIC (the company) welcomes and values your comments and suggestions on what it does to support Local Medical Committees and their constituents, General Medical Practitioners and General Medical Practice Teams (the community served).

The purpose of this Complaints Policy and Process is to ensure that all complaints are dealt with promptly and consistently and are handled courteously and fairly.

In this document, it is explained how to make a complaint and how it will be handled. The company will listen carefully to complaints and treat them as confidential and, in doing so, record, store and manage all information accurately and in accordance with the GDPR/Data Protection Act 2018. The company is committed to investigating all complaints fully, objectively and within the stated time frame.

Thereafter, the company shall notify the complainer of the results of its investigation and any right of appeal.

Definition of a complaint

For the purpose of this policy a complaint is defined as: Any expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, about any aspect of the company’s business.

How to make a complaint

If you are unhappy with certain aspects of what we are doing to support the community served, please communicate your concern to info@gpmplus.co.uk, as often the problem can be sorted out straight away. However, if you want to make a formal complaint, you can do this by writing to the Head of Operations at info@gpmplus.co.uk

Complaints Procedure

The company aims to settle complaints quickly and satisfactorily and provide an acceptable explanation to the complainer, including actions it proposes to take to improve its activities and decisions.

There are two stages to the complaint’s procedure:

• Stage One – the complaint
• Stage Two – the investigation

Stage One – the Complaint

A formal complaint should be made in writing to the Head of Operations, ideally within three months of the matter and sent by email to info@gpmplus.co.uk

If the complaint is about Head of Operations, the matter will be passed to the Wellbeing Lead/Medical Secretary c/o info@gpmplus.co.uk,

The complaint should include the complainer’s name and address, as well as the nature and date of the circumstances giving rise to the complaint.

Complaints will be logged on the complaints register, and the complainer should receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days of receipt of a complaint.

Stage Two – Investigation

All complaints will be dealt with by the Head of Operations, or Director to whom the Head of Operations has delegated the task of investigating the complaint. If necessary, they will speak to the complainant within 10 working days of receiving the written complaint.

Following the investigation, the Head of Operations or the Director who carried out the investigation will aim to provide a written response to the complainant within 20 working days of having first received the complaint. Occasionally investigations may take longer, particularly if the complaint is complex. Should this be the case a holding letter will be sent after 20 working days and, if possible, a final date given for the conclusion of the investigation.

Anonymous complaints

Complaints received anonymously will be recorded and considered, but action may be limited if further information required to permit a proper investigation is not forthcoming.

Data protection

To process a complaint the company will hold personal data provided by the complainer, and which other people may provide in response to the investigation of the complaint. The company will hold this data securely and in accordance with its Privacy Notice. The identity of the person making the complaint will only be known to those who need to consider the complaint and will not be revealed to other people or made public. However, it may not be possible to preserve confidentiality in some circumstances, for example, where relevant legislation applies, or allegations are made which involve the conduct of third parties.

The company will normally destroy complaints files 10 years after the complaint has been closed.

A report of all complaints received, and their resolution, will be provided to each Board meeting. Wherever possible complaints will be used to improve and develop the responsiveness of the company for the benefit of the community served.
The company may receive complaints that relate to services provided by NHS organisations. If this happens, it will endeavour to signpost to the organisation that can deal with the complaint.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please remember that all feedback received is valuable and gives the company the opportunity to know how it is doing and where improvements can be made.

This document has been created by LMC Services Yorkshire CIC and is not permitted to be distributed or reproduced without the written consent of LMC Services Yorkshire CIC.