Improving the quality of health in Barnet through sustainable primary care

Complaints

Barnet Federated GPs is committed to providing people with the highest standard of care. We value patient feedback and would like to hear about your experience of our services.

Complaints

If for any reason you are unhappy with the service you received from us, we would also like to know. This will allow us to learn from your experience and help us improve the general care we can give to you and other people. Making a complaint will not adversely affect the way we provide services to you in the future.

Our Formal Complaints Procedure

We hope that most issues can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise.
If your problem cannot be resolved in this way, you may wish to make a formal complaint. In this instance, contact the Patient Experience Team with the details of your formal complaint and issues of concern:

Patient Experience Team
Barnet Federated GPs
311 Ballards Lane, Finchley
London
N12 8YL
Email: barnet.federation@nhs.net
Telephone: 0203 982 9800You can also submit a contact form via this website.

Please let us know of your formal complaint within 12 months of you becoming aware that you have cause for concern.

  • We operate a complaints procedure in line with the NHS Complaints Regulations (2009):
    We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and, with your agreement, we aim to investigate and respond fully to your complaint within 25 working days. If this is not possible, we will keep you informed and agree with you new timescales for responding.
  • We will offer, where appropriate, a meeting with you to discuss any outstanding issues.
  • We will identify and implement any improvements to our service to help prevent a reoccurrence.

Complaining On Behalf of Someone Else

You can complain on behalf of a child for whom you have parental responsibility. You can complain to us on behalf of someone else who used our services. However, before we can discuss any aspect of their care with you, or start to investigate, we will first need to get written consent from the person themselves.

Obtaining Consent

We will contact the person who received the care from our service and request that they sign a consent form for you to complain on their behalf and for us to investigate the incident.

If the person is unable to give their consent because they do not have the mental capacity to make an informed decision at the time, consent will be requested from their lasting power of attorney, that is the person appointed by them to act in their best interests and make decisions on their behalf.

If you are complaining on behalf of a child for whom you do not have parental responsibility, consent will be requested from whoever holds parental responsibility for the child.

Patient confidentiality is respected at all times. We will not disclose to anyone any patient care information relating to a complaint without the appropriate consent.

Support with Making a Complaint

Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) is a national service that supports people who wish to make a complaint about the NHS care or treatment they have received.

POhWER is the provider of ICAS for Barnet residents.  You can contact POhWER at:

  • Referrals: www.pohwer.net/make-a-referral
  • Telephone: 0300 456 2370 (charged at your standard network rate)
  • Minicom: 0300 456 2364
  • Text: send the word ’pohwer’ with your name and number to 81025

 

You can contact the Care Quality Commission:

Address:
CQC National Customer Service Centre,
Citygate Gallowgate,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 4PA
Telephone: 03000 616161
Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk
Website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/

We can provide information in other languages and formats upon request. To arrange this please email us at: barnet.federation@nhs.net.


You can contact Healthwatch Barnet for support making a complaint:

Address:
Independent Living Centre
c/o Barnet & Southgate College
7 Bristol Avenue, Colindale
London
NW9 4BR

Telephone: 020 3475 1308
Email: info@healthwatchbarnet.co.uk
Website: https://www.healthwatchbarnet.co.uk/

Further Independent Review

If you are not satisfied with our final response to your complaint, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Health Service Ombudsman.


The Health Service Ombudsman represents the last stage in the NHS complaints process and carries out free independent reviews into unresolved complaints throughout the NHS and NHS funded services in England.

The Health Service Ombudsman would normally expect complaints to be referred within 12 months of the incident leading to the complaint. Complaints received outside this time limit may be considered if there is good reason to do so.

If you have any questions about whether the Health Service Ombudsman may be able to help you, or about how to refer your complaint, please contact them at the details below:

Address:
The Health Ombudsman,
Millbank Tower,
Millbank,
London,
SW1P 4QP

Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Textphone: 0300 061 4298
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk
Website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk