Complaints Policy

1. Our approach to complaints

We want to know when something has not gone as it should, so that we can put it right for you and improve the care we give everyone. We take every complaint seriously, investigate it properly and respond honestly. Making a complaint will never affect the care you receive from us.

This policy explains how to complain about any part of your experience with Centre for Surgery, including care from consultants who work at our hospital under practising privileges, how long each stage takes, and where you can go if you are not satisfied with our response. It meets the requirements of regulation 16 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and of the Care Quality Commission, which registers and inspects our hospital. We publish the number of complaints we receive each year in our clinical outcomes and patient safety report.

Complaints about how we use your personal information are handled under our privacy policy, which sets out your data protection rights.

2. Who can complain

• You, if you are a patient or have used our services.
• Someone acting for you, such as a relative, friend or advocate. Your care is confidential, so we need your written consent before we can discuss your care with them.
• A representative of a patient who cannot complain themselves, for example because they lack mental capacity or have died. This could be a next of kin, someone with lasting power of attorney, or the personal representative of the patient’s estate. We will check that they are an appropriate person, and we will always respect the patient’s confidentiality.

3. When to complain

Please tell us as soon as you can, while events are fresh. We ask that complaints are made within 12 months of the event, or of when you first became aware of the problem. We will still consider a later complaint if there is a good reason for the delay and it is still possible to investigate it fairly.

If you have a concern while you are with us, please tell a member of the team straight away, as we can often sort things out on the spot.

4. How to complain

You can complain in whichever way suits you:

• By email: contact@centreforsurgery.com, with “Complaint” in the subject line.
• By phone: 020 7993 4849, 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
• By post: Customer Service Manager, Centre for Surgery, 95–97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN.
• In person, to any member of our team at our hospital.

It helps if you include your name and contact details, your date of birth, the dates of your appointments or procedure, what happened, and what you would like us to do. If you complain by phone or in person, we will write down your complaint and send you a copy, so you can check we have understood it.

If you would like help making a complaint, need information in another format or language, or need an interpreter, please tell us and we will arrange it. Independent support is also available from Citizens Advice (section 8).

5. Our timescales at a glance

If an investigation will take longer, for example because we need to speak to people who are away, we will write to you before the deadline to explain why and tell you when to expect our response.

6. Stage 1: our investigation

Our Customer Service Manager, who is responsible for complaints at our Baker Street hospital, handles your complaint. We will:

• acknowledge it within 3 working days and offer to discuss it with you, by phone or at a meeting;
• investigate it thoroughly, which may include reviewing your clinical records and speaking to the people involved;
• involve the senior clinical team where your complaint is about clinical care;
• send you a full written response within 20 working days.

Our response will explain what we found and how we reached our conclusions, apologise where something went wrong, and tell you what we will do to put it right and to stop it happening again.

7. Stage 2: review by a director

If you are not satisfied with our Stage 1 response, you can ask for a review. Please write to us within 20 working days of our response, explaining what you are still unhappy about, to:

The Managing Director, Centre for Surgery, 95–97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN, or contact@centreforsurgery.com.

The review is carried out by our Managing Director, or by another director who has not been involved in your complaint. They will look at your complaint, our investigation and our response, and will either confirm our response or offer a different resolution. You will receive their decision in writing within 20 working days. This is the final stage of our internal process.

8. If you remain unhappy

We are not a member of ISCAS, the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service. ISCAS is a voluntary scheme that independent healthcare providers pay to join, and it can only consider complaints about its members, so independent adjudication through ISCAS is not available for complaints about our care. We say this openly so that you know your options from the start. The following routes are open to you whatever the outcome of our process:

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The CQC regulates our hospital. It does not investigate or resolve individual complaints, but it wants to hear about your experience and uses what people tell it in its monitoring and inspections. Share your experience at cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care ↗, email enquiries@cqc.org.uk or call 03000 616161.

General Medical Council (GMC)

If you are concerned that a doctor’s practice or behaviour puts patients at risk, you can raise it with the GMC at gmc-uk.org/concerns ↗ or on 0161 923 6602.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

Concerns about a nurse can be raised with the NMC at nmc.org.uk/concerns-nurses-midwives ↗.

Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice gives free, independent advice on making a complaint and on your consumer rights. Call the consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 or visit citizensadvice.org.uk ↗.

Complaints about finance

If your complaint is about finance arranged through us, Chrysalis Finance, which is responsible for our credit broking, will consider it. If you are not satisfied with its final response, you can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service ↗.

Legal advice

You can take independent legal advice at any time, including about your rights under consumer law. Smaller money claims can be made through the small claims track of the county court.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

The Ombudsman can only consider complaints about NHS-funded care. We do not currently provide NHS-funded care, so the Ombudsman cannot consider complaints about our services.

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

For complaints about how we have used your personal information, see our privacy policy, or contact the ICO at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint ↗.

9. When something goes wrong: our duty of candour

We will always be open with you if something goes wrong with your care, whether or not you complain. Where the duty of candour applies (regulation 20 of the 2014 Regulations), we will tell you in person as soon as we reasonably can, apologise, explain what we know and what further enquiries we will make, offer you support, and confirm this in writing. Being open with you in this way is not an admission of legal liability.

10. Complaints and legal claims

Making a complaint does not affect your legal rights. If you start legal proceedings about the matter you have complained about, parts of your complaint may be handled through our legal representatives, and we will tell you if this happens. We will still look into the care issues you have raised.

An apology, a refund or any other gesture we offer to resolve a complaint is not an admission of legal liability, unless we say otherwise in writing.

11. Confidentiality and records

Your complaint is handled confidentially, and only people who need to be involved see it. We keep complaint records separately from your clinical record, and we keep them for at least 10 years after the complaint is closed. Complaining will not affect your care, now or in future.

12. Respect for our team

We understand that complaints are often made at a difficult time. We ask that our staff are treated with courtesy. If contact becomes abusive, threatening or unreasonably persistent, we may agree with you a single point of contact or a way of communicating, such as in writing only. We will tell you if we do this and why, and we will still deal with your complaint.

13. Learning from complaints

Every complaint is reviewed by our clinical governance team, and what we learn feeds into our training and our quality improvement work. We report the number of complaints each year in our outcomes report. If you are unhappy with your result rather than with something that went wrong, please talk to your surgeon first: our guide to revision cosmetic surgery explains how further surgery is considered.