Our aim is to give you the highest possible standard of service and to try to deal swiftly with any problems that might occur. Our task is helped when patients adhere to their responsibilities as follows:

Patients should attend their appointments at the arranged time. If this is not possible, they should inform the surgery as soon as possible.

We expect that patients will understand that appointments are for one person only. Additional appointments should be made for more than one person.

Patients are responsible for their own health, and the health of their children, and should co-operate with the practice in endeavouring to keep themselves healthy. We give you professional help and advice - please act on it!

Requests for help and advice for non-urgent matters should be made during surgery hours only.

Home visits should only be requested for patients who are seriously ill or housebound. It is important to bear in mind that most medical problems are dealt with more effectively in the clinical setting of a well equipped surgery or hospital.

Patients should realise that home visits are made at the doctor's discretion.

Requests for visits and advice at night should only be made for true emergencies.

Many problems can be solved by advice alone, therefore patients should not always expect a prescription.

We ask that patients treat the staff and doctors with courtesy and respect. Bear in mind that reception staff have a very difficult job to do, juggling with limited resources and without detailed medical knowledge. They are trying to do their best for you.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the doctors or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure as part of a NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints procedure meets national criteria.

How to Complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible - ideally, within a matter of days or at most, a few weeks - because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to the Practice Manager or any of the doctors. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with the Practice Manager in order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the complaints procedure to you and will make sure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What We Shall Do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, and you are entitled to a written response to your complaint. We shall aim to:

Find out what happened and went wrong;

Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;

Make sure you receive an apology where this is appropriate;

Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again.

Complaints should always be made by the Patient concerned unless they are unable to complain (for example, if they are too ill) or provide written consent for someone else to act on their behalf.

The Primary Care Complaints Unit

We hope if you have a problem you will use the practice based complaints procedure in the first instance, but if you feel you cannot raise your concerns with the practice, you can contact the Complaints Unit who can offer free advice on making your complaint.

Leeds PCT
North West House
West Park Ring Road
LEEDS
LS16 6QG