Complaints Policy

Help us to reach the highest standards by having your say!

Your comments are important. We welcome feedback, both positive and negative.

Please let us know if there is something we are doing well or if there is anything we could try to do better.

We know that you might not want to give feedback in person, so you can fill in this form instead. You can also write a letter or an email. We look at all comments that come in and we try to make improvements based on feedback.

We need to know if you have a complaint about our care so that we can try to resolve the issue and try to learn lessons. This helps us to improve the care of our patients. We have a written procedure to make sure that we manage complaints to the highest standard.

Step 1: How do I make a complaint?

There are four ways to make a complaint.

Fill in the form and put it in the box in the waiting room
Talk to your GP or to the Complaints Lead, Tara Mullen
Send us a letter or email to:

Atrium Family Practice, John’s Lane, Naas, Co. Kildare. W91 NY3C.

(email) info@atriumfamilypractice.ie – Telephone us on 045 250090

In the interests of fairness, we cannot deal with anonymous complaints. If you want us to deal with your complaint, you must give us your name. When we investigate a complaint, we treat everyone with dignity and respect, and we would ask you to do the same as we go through the process.

Step 2: What will happen next?

We will try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible.

We will let you know that we received your complaint within 5 working days.

We take patient confidentiality very seriously. If you want to make a complaint but you are not the patient involved, we will need written consent (permission) from the patient to say that you can deal with the complaint and that we can discuss their medical details with you.

We aim to have investigated the complaint within 10 working days.
You will receive a written answer, or we might ask you to meet us to discuss your complaint.

Some complaints are serious or complicated and mean that we must hold an investigation. If this arises, we will tell you. We will tell you how the investigation will work, who will be in charge of it and how long it will take. If we need to do an investigation, we will aim to finish it in 30 days. If we think it will take longer, we will tell you why and we will talk to you about this. You will be able to talk to us about the process. You can bring a friend or relative to any meeting.

Step 3: When we investigate a complaint, we try to:

Treat everyone involved with courtesy and respect.
Find out what happened and what went wrong and why
Identify any frivolous or vexatious complaints that are without merit
Give you the opportunity to discuss the problem with the staff member(s) involved
Give you an apology if this is the right thing to do
Take steps to make sure the problem does not happen again

We hope that we will be able to resolve your complaint quickly and to your satisfaction. Sometimes we might need help and we may organise this with you. For example, we may suggest mediation, which is help from an independent third party to resolve the issue.

Step 4:

We will answer your complaint in writing or in person and if there is an investigation, we will send you a final response when the investigation is over. If you are not happy about the response you receive, there are several other organisations where you may bring your complaint:

HSE

Email: yoursay@hse.ie

Website: www.hse.ie

Infoline: 1850-24-1850

Address: Oak House, Millennium Park, Naas, Co. Kildare.

OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN

Email: info@ombudsman.ie

Website: www.ombudsman.ie

Tel: 01 639 5600

Address: 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2

OMBUDSMAN FOR CHILDREN

Email: oco@oco.ie