If you feel that your concerns have not been put right you can make a formal complaint. A formal complaint is an official complaint. We will take it very seriously.
Complaints can be received from:
- Current or past patients of the Trust.
- Representatives of patients (e.g. relatives, friends or carers) acting with their written consent.
- People acting on behalf of deceased patients – with the consent of the patient’s next of kin.
Timing of a Complaint:
- You should make your complaint as soon as possible after the event.
- Your complaint should be no later than 12 months after the event, or no later than 12 months after the date when you became aware of the problem.
How to Complain:
- If we cannot resolve your concerns within 24 hours through our patient experience team we will investigate your concerns under the NHS Complaints Regulations (2009). Please make your complaint in writing and send it to:
- The Chief Executive
Birmingham Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Mindelsohn Way
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TG
In order to address your complaint, we will need you to give us the following information:
- Your full name (at the time of the incident)
- Your address and telephone number
- Your date of birth
- Your patient number (if you know it)
- The ward or department involved
- An outline of the nature of the complaint with as many facts as possible – dates, times, places and names.
If you are complaining on someone’s behalf, please also provide:
- His/her full name (at the time of the incident)
- His/her address and telephone number
- His/her date of birth
What happens when I’ve sent my complaint?
When the Chief Executive receives your complaint:
- A member of the Patient Experience Team will contact you to discuss your concerns and liaise with you about what is happening, how long this is likely to take and agree with you the best way to keep in touch with you (phone/email/letter).
- The process may encompass one or all of the following and we can arrange any of these or other possible solutions for you:
- a phone call from the manager in charge of the service can sort out your problems
- an apology
- a meeting to talk about your concerns
- a full investigation and a written response.
- We will also give you details of VoiceAbility (the NHS Advocacy Service for Birmingham. This is a free, confidential service, which is independent of Bimringham Women’s Hospital. VoiceAbility can help you make the complaint and support you throughout the process, including attending meetings with you.
- If you have particular problems or a disability we can find ways of providing you with the help and information you need.
Timescales of the complaint process:
- We will try to contact you within 3 working days of receiving your complaint. We will always try to telephone you but if we cannot reach you we will write to you and ask you to call us. We are happy to call you back.
- We will agree a reasonable timescale with you to give us enough time to respond to your complaint in the way we have agreed.
- If it looks as though we cannot get back to you by the date we agreed, we will contact you to explain why this is and let you know when we will be in touch again.
Contact and Communication with you:
- When we first get in touch with you we will agree how we will respond to your complaint. This may be by a phone call from another department, a meeting with senior staff or a letter following a formal investigation.
- When you complain, you will always receive an apology, an explanation of what we think has happened and why and assurance that this will not happen to anyone else.
- We will keep you updated with progress, using the means agreed during our initial contact (phone, email or letter).
