Complaints Procedure
Complaints Reporting, Handling and Management
Receipt of complaints
From time to time it may be the case that we receive a complaint from a client, patient or other person. All complaints received by the booking consultants, are sent directly to the sales managers, who then decide on the severity of the complaint. In cases where it is a minor complaint, the sales managers will deal directly with all parties involved. In cases where it is a serious or major complaint, the complaint is forwarded to the Quality Control Manager or to the Registered
Manager. The Quality Control Manager may receive the complaint directly from a client via the company’s complaints email address (complaints@excellececareservices.co.uk).
Minor vs Major complaints
Any complaint which impacts on patient safety, where service users have been placed at risk or any form of abuse would automatically qualify as a serious or major complaint. Minor complaints would generally be around admin type issues. Examples would be arriving late, bad attitude, uniforms, use of mobile phones on shift, etc. However, sleeping on duty would not be a minor complaint as it potentially places services users at risk.
The complaints procedure can be briefly summarised as follows:
Within five (5) working days of receipt of a complaint from the client or agency worker, the Excellence Care Services will acknowledge receipt of the complaint. In practice this should happen immediately or as soon as possible given the particular circumstances. The complaint should be made in writing on the Excellence Care Services ‘s form.
2. All reasonable endeavours will be made by the Excellence Care Services to ensure that all complaints are resolved within fifteen (15) days of the complaint being notified to the Excellence Care Services .
3. The Excellence Care Services shall ensure that in the event of the complaint being against an agency worker that the agency worker is fully informed of complaints relating to him/her. The agency worker shall be entitled to receive a copy of the complaint referred to in paragraph 1.
4. The agency worker will be afforded the opportunity to state his/her version of events and will be given seven (7) days to respond to the Excellence Care Services in writing.
5. All responses will be shared with the complainant and if appropriate, the Excellence Care Services will take demonstrable action to ensure there is no reoccurrence of the act or omission complained of.
6. The client may at any time request the Excellence Care Services to provide the client with an update as to the progress of the resolution of the complaint.
7. The client will receive a written response from the Excellence Care Services , detailing how the complaint has been resolved.
8. When there is evidence of malpractice or the complaint is an event that requires notification, the Excellence Care Services will immediately notify the CQC, The Police, The Disclosure and Barring Service or Safeguarding as appropriate and where applicable alert the agency workers professional body.
9.The Excellence Care Services where necessary will immediately exclude the agency worker from its register whilst an investigation in progress.
10. The Excellence Care Services undertakes to work with all parties applicable to an investigation and where necessary share findings of such investigations.
11.A full written record of the nature of each complaint and details of the action taken as a result of the complaint, is kept on a secure database for easy access;
12. The Excellence Care Services has a quality assurance system in place to analyze and identify any patterns in complaints and trend analysis is conducted continuously.
12. The complainant at any time has the right to refer this matter for review to the Care Quality Commission England.
Risk Committee:
In certain cases the complaint is brought before the Risk Committee to make a decision on the outcome. The Risk Committee meet at least once a week and comprises senior management staff and clinicians. The Risk Committee was created as a means to ensuring that serious complaints are dealt with fairly and objectively by an experienced team that is independent from the parties involved in the complaint. The Risk Committee also oversee all safeguarding matters and referrals to the relevant bodies to ensure that appropriate action is taken.
The Risk Committee receives a daily Enterprise report of all current open complaints and these are monitored to ensure that complaints are dealt with timelessly.
End of Policy
