We found that the practice failed to adhere to the NHS Scotland Model Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP). In particular they failed to acknowledge Mr C's complaint within three working days, failed to ensure that the complaint response detailed the right to bring the complaint to this office and failed to ensure that the complaint response addressed all the issues raised by Mr C. We upheld Mr C's complaint.
Recommendations
What we asked the organisation to do in this case: Apologise to Mr C for failing to handle his complaint reasonably. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/leaflets-and-guidance.
In relation to complaints handling, we recommended: When responding to complaints the practice should follow their complaints handling procedure and all staff should be aware of this and the model CHP for the NHS.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201806474 as a PDF (25.16 KB) Updated: January 23, 2019