NHS Complaints Advocacy

An elderly gentleman being supported by a carer.

Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy supports people to raise their concerns and complaints about NHS care and treatment.

Available in Cumberland, Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough areas.

Government recognises that the NHS doesn't always get things right and it can be challenging for people to raise concerns and complaints. If you received treatment, or care, which you are unhappy about and you would like to raise a concern or complaint, we can help.

How does an Independent NHS Complaints Advocate help you?

Feel confident to raise your concern or complaint
Understand the NHS complaints process
Know who to raise your complaints to
Explore your rights and options at every stage to help you decide what to do
Understand how to raise complaints about care and support decisions
Providing self help information and offering guidance to make your NHS complaint
Find out about other services or organisations that can help

Easy read documents

Click here for easy read content

Find out more

Download our easy to follow Good to Know Guide to find out about:

Things to consider before making a complaint
The complaints process
The role of an Independent NHS Complaints Advocate

Download our 'Good To Know' guide

How to make an NHS Complaint

Download our step by step guide on making an NHS complaint.

Our easy to use guide features letter templates for making a complaint and consent forms.

We also include addresses of where you can send your complaint across Cumbria.

Download our 'Make an NHS complaint' guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Take a look at the top asked questions...

The aim of the NHS Complaints Process is to resolve issues, improve practice and implement learning. Complaints are investigated and may give you answers to why things happened to make you dissatisfied.

If at the end of the process of ‘local resolution’ you don’t feel your complaint has been resolved satisfactorily you have the right to go to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman. As a general rule the Ombudsman will only accept a case after local resolution has been completed.

If you are considering making a complaint using the NHS Complaints Process, it is worth thinking things through carefully at the outset. The NHS Complaints Process may be the best route to follow if:

→ You have raised your concerns, but they haven’t been resolved fully

→ What happened raises serious questions about standards of care or treatment

→ You wish to raise complex issues which require investigation

You can use the NHS complaints process to raise these issues however the NHS complaints process cannot be used for disciplinary proceedings or to ‘get a Doctor or Nurse struck off.’ If you have a particular issue about conduct, then you would need to contact the relevant professional body for advice and assistance.

People First can provide more information on any of these processes if required. The following professional bodies deal with concerns about individual practitioners regarding their fitness to practice

For Doctors you should contact the General Medical Council (GMC). For more information call their helpline on 0161 923 6602

For Dentists you should contact the General Dental Council (GDC). For more information call their helpline on 0845 222 4141

For Nurses and Midwifes you should contact the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). For more information call their helpline on 020 7637 7181

For the professions listed below, you should contact the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC):
→ Chiropodists / podiatrists
→ Dieticians
→ Occupational therapists
→ Paramedics
→ Physiotherapists
→ Practitioner Psychologists
→ Prosthetics’ / Orthoptists
→ Radiographers
→ Social workers in England
→ Speech and language therapists
→ Art therapists
→ Biomedical / clinical scientists
→ Hearing aid dispensers
For more information call their helpline on 020 7840 9814.

If you’re looking for financial compensation you will need to speak to a solicitor who specialises in medical or clinical negligence. You will need to do this within three years of the incident happening or first becoming aware of the incident. We can provide you with a list of approved solicitors you can contact do discuss this option. They can explain a little more about this process to you. This remains an option at any time through the complaints process.

If you’ve paid for private treatment or used medical insurance, you cannot use the NHS Complaints Process to make a complaint. The private healthcare service will have its own complaints process that you can follow. This also applies to privately-funded nursing homes, most of which will have their own arrangements for complaints. However, NHS funded treatment carried out in a Private Hospital for example would allow you to make a complaint through the NHS complaints process.

More Frequently Asked Questions

Complaints can be made over the telephone, via email or in a letter. However, the most effective way is usually made in writing by letter. You can download our self-help pack here. This information should provide you with enough information to know who to send your complaint to, and how to go about putting your letter of complaint together.

If you would like more support or to talk to an advocate you can make a referral to us by telephoning 0300 303 8037 or online here.

As a general rule, NHS complaints should made within 12 months of the incident or within 12 months of realising that you have something to complain about.

The first stage of the NHS complaints process is called Local Resolution. This is your opportunity to explain why you are unhappy and what you would like to happen. It gives you and the NHS organisation time to discuss what happened. The aim of Local Resolution is to resolve your concerns and, where appropriate, use your experiences to improve local services.

Once you have made a complaint you should receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within three working days of receiving your letter. This acknowledgement letter should include a timescale for when you will receive a formal response and who will be investigating your complaint.

The NHS has 6 months to provide you with a response to your complaint, but an initial timescale would usually be much less than this. If a timescale cannot be met, the NHS must contact you to inform you and agree a new timescale with you. You have the right to request this if this does not happen.

If you remain unhappy:

→ You can write another letter highlighting what you think has not been covered

→ You can call the person handling your complaint and explain why you are still unhappy

→ You can request a Local Resolution Meeting to discuss your outstanding concerns, which an Advocate can attend with you.

→ You can refer your concerns to the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to review your complaint

Please note: If the NHS organisation has not written to you to tell you they cannot investigate your complaint further, the PHSO may feel your complaint can still be resolved through local resolution.

The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman is independent of the NHS and Government. The Ombudsman’s services are confidential and free. They are there to review your complaint should you remain dissatisfied with the investigation carried out by the NHS organisation.

The Ombudsman makes final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS. You should submit a complaint no later than 12 months from the date of the events you are complaining about (or from when you first became aware of the matter), although the Ombudsman can extend this time limit if, for example, the local resolution process took longer than a year.

The Ombudsman will look at every complaint but is not required to investigate them all. They will not usually investigate your case unless you have already tried local resolution. The Ombudsman can refer you back to
local resolution if they think you have come to them too soon, or if they feel that the NHS organisation involved has not done all it could to resolve your issues locally.

You can contact the Ombudsman direct:

→ Customer helpline: 0345 015 4033 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm)

→ Text to their ‘call back’ service: 07624 813 005

→ Textphone (minicom): 0300 061 4298

→ Email at [email protected]

You can download one of their application forms and gain more information on their website at ombudsman.org.uk

We can also provide you with information including a copy of the application and support to complete it.

The Ombudsman will not usually investigate a complaint if:

→ You disagree with a decision made by your NHS provider but cannot offer any evidence as to why their decision is wrong or unsatisfactory

→ They decide that there is no evidence to suggest that the NHS provider acted wrongly

→ They decide that the NHS provider or practitioner has done all that they

reasonably could to put things right

→ They decide that there would not be a worthwhile outcome from an investigation (for example, if the solution sought by the complainant is not obtainable)

It is important to provide as much evidence as you can to support why you feel an investigation should be carried out. You may wish to request copies of Medical or Nursing records to assist you with this, which is usually done by contacting the Hospital, GP or Dental practice directly and requesting them.

You should also include clear points which outline what you would like them to investigate. If the NHS has not investigated certain points and do not wish to provide any further information, you can request that the Ombudsman investigate these or request that the NHS provide an answer.

Initially, a member of the Ombudsman’s staff will consider whether your case meets the Ombudsman’s criteria for investigation. To carry out this assessment they may need to see clinical records and other documentation. A member of the Ombudsman’s staff will contact you to ask for any papers they need and will write to you to let you know the outcome.

If you take your complaint to the Ombudsman, there are three main outcomes:
→ The Ombudsman may decide not to investigate the case and take no further action (for example, if they think that the NHS has done all it can to resolve your complaint locally)
→ The Ombudsman may decide not to investigate the case but ask the NHS provider or practitioner to take action which they think would resolve your complaint more quickly. This is called an ‘intervention.’
→ The Ombudsman may decide to carry out an in-depth investigation resulting in a detailed report. The investigation will be very thorough and can take some time. The Ombudsman aims to complete 90% of investigations within 12 months of accepting the case for investigation.

If the Ombudsman decides to investigate your complaint, they will assign an investigator. This can take a number of weeks depending on how busy they are, however once they have made a decision to investigate, they will not change their mind.

The investigator will complete an investigation and will write a detailed report. The investigator will send you a draft report first and give you an opportunity to tell them what you think. The investigator will then make a recommendation to the Ombudsman who will then make a final decision.

The Ombudsman will make one of three decisions; to uphold your complaint, partly uphold your complaint or not uphold your complaint. If your complaint is upheld, the Ombudsman can make recommendations to the NHS provider or practitioner to put things right. All the Ombudsman’s decisions are final.
This includes the decision about whether or not your complaint should be upheld.