You can contact the Practice by telephoning the appropriate surgery during usual opening hours. You can also write to us or send us a fax.

If you need to contact a Doctor urgently outwith the stated surgery hours, your initial contact will be with NHS 24 by telephoning 08454 242424. There, a trained nurse will assist you in arranging the appropriate response to your call. This service is the responsibility of NHS Forth Valley and the out of hours service is organised by the Health Board.

If you have a complaint about the service you have received from the Doctors or any of the staff working in the Practice, please let us know. We operate a Practice Complaints Procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system 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 six months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• within six months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.

Complaints should be addressed to Jillian Furby, Practice Manager. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with Jillian Furby 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 when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:

• find out what happened and what may have gone wrong;
• enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;
• ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of illness) of providing this.

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our Practice Complaints Procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our Practice. This does not affect your right to approach the Health Board if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us.

If you are not happy with the response to your complaint you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to consider your complaint further.