Making a Complaint

At NHS Orkney, we try to give you the best possible care and treatment. However, we understand that sometimes things go wrong and people are dissatisfied with the service they have received.  If this does happen, we want you to tell us and we will do our best to put things right.  When we receive a complaint, we aim to provide a response as quickly as possible. Our Information to help you make a complaint leaflet provides more detail on our complaints handling procedure.

What should you do?

If you can, please talk to a member of staff involved in your care. If you do this, we can try to sort out your complaint at the time, quickly and in person.

If you are not able to talk to the NHS staff involved in your care, you can ask to speak to a senior member of staff or to NHS Orkney’s Patient Experience Officer. 

We usually ask you to submit a complaint by email or in writing so that we understand clearly what happened.  It would be helpful if you include:

• your contact details - a postal address, email and/or telephone number
• If the complaint is about you, please give your date of birth
• The patient’s name, contact details and date of birth if the complaint is not about you
• Your relationship to the patient if the complaint is not about you
• A description of the complaint
• When and where this occurred

You can also make a complaint by phone or in person.

If you would find it helpful, we can give you advice about where to get independent support to make a complaint.  Or you can make contact with them directly using this link - https://www.cas.org.uk/pass

We will keep information about you confidential. We will make a record of your details and complaint and use it to help us make services better.

If you are not the patient and are providing information on or behalf of someone else, we will need to obtain their consent so that we can act on this information. If consent is not obtained this may delay any response being sent to you.

What happens when I have complained?

Our complaints procedure has two stages:

Stage one – early resolution

We aim to resolve complaints quickly and close to where we provided the service.  Where appropriate, this could mean speaking to someone at the point of care who may provide an on-the-spot apology and explanation if something has clearly gone wrong, and immediate action to resolve the problem.

Sometimes we will have to make some enquiries before we can respond to your complaint.  This may take a little longer but we will try to respond at Stage one within five working days or less, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

If we cannot resolve your complaint at this stage, we will explain why and tell you what you can do next.  We might suggest that you take your complaint to Stage two.  You may choose to do this immediately or sometime after you get our initial decision.

Stage two – investigation

Stage two deals with two types of complaint: those that have not been resolved at Stage one and those that are more complex and require detailed investigation.

When using Stage two we will:

•           acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days;

•           where appropriate, discuss your complaint with you to understand why you remain dissatisfied and what outcome you are looking for; and

•           give you a full response to the complaint as soon as possible and within 20 working days.

If our investigation will take longer than 20 working days, we will tell you.  We will agree revised time limits with you and keep you updated on progress.

You can use this form to submit a complaint: