Complaints about NHS Personalised Healthcare Commissioning
We welcome your views about our services, both positive and negative. We have service standards which explain what you should expect from us, and we have a range of ways you can tell us about your experience of the NHS ML Personalised Healthcare Commissioning team. This is the service which assesses Continuing Healthcare (CHC) for Adults and Continuing Care (CC) for Children and Young People.
If you are unhappy with the service we provided to you, there is a right to make a formal complaint, have it looked into, and get a response.
What information will we collect as part of the process?
We will collect and process data from a number of sources to ensure your complaint can be investigated and responded to. This will include the information that you provide to your ICB in support of your complaint, and any records held by the Personalised Healthcare Commissioning Team which may include, for example, extracts of records from requesting records from GP’s, Hospitals, Local Authorities, District Nurses, Care Homes or Mental Health teams. The ICB will ask you to consent to these records being obtained prior to sending the complaint to us.
These records may include (this list is not exhaustive):
- Physical or mental health details
- Racial and ethnic origin
- Sexual orientation
- Details of care
- Religious or similar beliefs
- Sensitive information with regards to physical and mental health conditions
- Information pertaining to the referral, assessment and care plans
- Family and relationship details
- Identification and evidence of authority to act
How will my information be used and shared?
Once we have gathered all the required evidence it will be used to fully investigate your complaint. Where required the information will be shared with the ICB so that they may consider the findings before responding to your complaint.
Information collected as part of the complaint will not be shared with friends, family or other individuals not involved in the complaint process without prior consent from the patient or appointed patient representative. Individuals have the right to withdraw consent to share information with friends/family/representatives at any time. Your local ICB Complaints Team will be able to advise you on how the withdrawal of consent may impact your complaint investigation.
All professionals involved in the process must maintain strict confidentiality regarding any information that is shared as part of the complaints process.
For further information regarding how your information is processed and how it is used within the NHS, please see NHS ML’s Privacy Policy:
https://www.midlandsandlancashirecsu.nhs.uk/privacy-policy/
How do I access a copy of my information?
Should you wish a copy of any of your complaint information then please initially speak to your local ICB Complaints Team who can advise. If they are unable to provide it easily, they will re-direct you to the appropriate department so you can make a ‘Subject Access Request’.
You can raise your concerns immediately by speaking with the staff involved. This might give you the answer you need without having to take it further.
If this is not successful, you can contact our Patient Experience Team by emailing mlcsu.patientexperience@nhs.net. They will give you confidential advice and support to resolve the problem. If you are considering a complaint, they can explain what is involved, how long it is likely to take and the possible outcomes. If you decide to go ahead, they will tell you how to do that.
Someone from the independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service can help you. An advocate will be able to help to write your complaint and will review any information. They will help to get your point across to the NHS organisation dealing with your complaint.
You can seek advice from an NHS complaints advocate at any stage of the process. If you decide you need some support, it’s never too late to ask for help.
Your local council will be able to tell you who the advocacy provider is in your area.
NHS Personalised Healthcare Commissioning (CHC and CC) is the responsibility of your local Integrated Care Board (ICB), but they have asked NHS ML to provide this service on their behalf. Any complaints about our services will also be signed and agreed by the ICB before they are sent to you, but NHS ML will make sure we investigate and produce their own response to all the points you raise. This will be signed by a senior member of staff.
You should make your complaint to the Complaint Service where you live. This could be your local ICB, or it could be provided by NHS ML. If you are not sure where to send your complaint, you can talk to our Patient Experience Team who will help.
When the complaints team receive your complaint, they will acknowledge it within 3 working days and will tell you when you should expect a reply. If your complaint is about the service provided by NHS ML they will send your points to us and ask us to investigate.
NHS ML will look into what happened by checking all the written information we hold and speaking to staff members who were involved. Our investigation will be fair to both you and the staff involved. If we identify failings, we will explain what changes we will make to stop it happening again. Our investigation findings will then be used to produce a letter which we will sign and send to the ICB. They will check our response and send it on to you, usually with a covering letter from the ICB.
If you do not agree with the outcome of your assessment and you want it to change, this would be through registering an appeal against the eligibility decision. The outcome letter that you have been sent provides you with information about how to do this. Depending on what happened, sometimes you can also complain. If you are not sure which would be appropriate you should talk to the Patient Experience team or seek independent advice.
Anyone who has received NHS ML NHS Personalised Healthcare Commissioning services can complain to us. You can ask someone to act on your behalf if they have your consent.
A complaint should be made within 12 months from the date the problem occurred or when it came to your attention.
If your complaint involves more than one NHS organisation or the NHS and adult social care (provided by the local authority), you can make your complaint to just one of the organisations involved and they will work with the other organisations and arrange for you to receive a single, coordinated response.
You can complain by email, post or through our website. When you make your complaint, it would help if you can tell us what you want to achieve so we can address that in our investigation and response.
If you make your complaint verbally, we will ask you to agree a written summary to make sure you agree with how we have captured your complaint.
You can find out more about NHS complaints by looking at the NHS website.
If you still unhappy with how your complaint has been handled, you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to review your complaint. The PHSO is independent and they may decide to carry a review of how your complaint was dealt with. They must be satisfied that you we have been given every opportunity to resolve your complaint before they will consider your case.
You can contact the PHSO at:
PHSO
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London SW1P 4QP
Tel: 0345 015 4033
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Web: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Patient Experience Contact Details:
You can get in touch with the NHS ML Patient Experience Team at:
Bennett House
2nd Floor East
Town Road
Hanley
Stoke on Trent
ST1 2QB
01782 656107
Email: mlcsu.patientexperience@nhs.net
Compliments
If you have received a good service or want to thank a particular staff member, we would like to know. Please contact our Patient Experience Team by emailing mlcsu.patientexperience@nhs.net to tell us more.
