Feedback, complaints, getting involved to improve services

You have the right to tell the NHS what you think about their service.
If something was good, you can give feedback. If something was not good, you can make a complaint.
This means you can ask for things to be better.

There's more information about NHS feedback and complaints on the NHS inform website. There's also information for young people about feedback and complaints on the NHS inform website.

What difference can I make?

Everyone’s ideas and experiences are important for making health and care services better. You have something special to share and your voice matters.

Sharing your thoughts helps everyone
If you answer a survey or send in your views, you can help make health services better for everyone.

Join a patient group
If you have more time, you can join a patient participation group. This means you can meet new people and learn new things.

Feel more confident
Sharing your ideas can help you feel more confident and happy. You might make new friends and learn new skills.

Learn from others
Talking to other people and hearing about their experiences can help you. You might find out things that are useful for your own health.

Even if you only have a few minutes, your ideas can make a big difference!

Take action

Getting involved can have a lot of positive outcomes, for you, for services, and for research too.

To get started, share your experiences of health and care, good or bad, with the Care Opinion website.

This short video explains how Care Opinion works:

ask at your local GP surgery or hospital about their patient participation group (PPG) opportunities

look for research studies to get involved in: Be Part of Research

use the ALISS directory of support groups to find out about opportunities to get involved and share your experience with others.

Making a complaint

Complaints about NHS services

You have the right to make a complaint about any aspect of NHS service using the NHS patient feedback and complaints procedure.

To complain, you must:

have had or be having NHS care or treatment
have visited or used NHS services or facilities
have been affected, or be likely to be affected, by something that NHS staff have or haven’t done.

You can complain about any aspect of NHS service you've received from a hospital, GP practice, NHS dentist, ambulance or other NHS service. If you're in doubt about whether you can make a complaint, you can contact the Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS)

If you want to make a complaint, this guidance from Citizens Advice Scotland tells you how to go about it.

Complaints about professional misconduct

If you think an NHS practitioner is guilty of professional misconduct, you might be able to complain to the practitioner's professional or regulatory body. If a practitioner is found guilty of professional misconduct, they can be stopped from practising in the future.

This leaflet - Who regulates health and social care professionals? on the General Medical Council (GMC) website outlines which regulatory body is responsible for monitoring each profession and what regulation means. It also provides contact details for all the regulatory bodies.

The GMC has other information about concerns and complaints about doctors. There's also a leaflet called 'What to expect from your doctor: a guide for patients'.

Equality and human rights

Equality

The Equality Act published in 2010 legally protects people from unfair treatment because of any of the following ‘protected characteristics:’

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation.

The Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) website provides more information about these protected characteristics.

The Equality Act states that it is unlawful to treat an individual less favourably, or unfavourably, because of their protected characteristic. Examples could include:

Being excluded from something
Refusal of service
Being deprived of a choice
If you are at a disadvantage compared to other service users
Poor quality of service compared to others.

If you feel that you have experienced treatment like this, then the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) can support you to understand your rights and provide guidance to help you address this.

Human rights

Human rights set out the basic rights and freedoms that belong to everyone. These are documented within the Human Rights Act 1998.

All public bodies, including local governments and health services, must do all they can to protect your human rights. They must ensure those rights are not infringed upon or interfered with, without justifiable cause.

Example:

A local authority is considering moving an individual with dementia into a care home due to concerns about their mental capacity.

Under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, the local authority has to consider if it would be removing the individual from their home against their will. If so, is the authority interfering with the individual’s right to a private life, which includes a right to autonomy, a family life and even the right to the home they already have.

Article 8 within the Human Rights Act does allow for interference. However, in order for the interference to be justified the local authority has to show:

It had the legal right to take that action
The action was for legitimate reasons
It was a proportionate way to achieve a legitimate aim.

The Human Rights Act includes many Articles. You can read about these on the EASS website. Contact EASS for further guidance.

How do I raise a concern if I feel an organisation has breached my rights?

You have the right to raise this concern to the organisation. Consider why you feel you have been treated differently. What happened that made you feel that way?

It’s good practice to write things down. This helps you to collect any evidence you can. Note down the dates you engaged with the service, who you spoke to, what they said etc.

Is there a timescale for legal action?

There are legal time frames for taking an equality or human rights case to court and it is very important you keep this in mind if you wish to go down the legal route later.

For cases of discrimination that fall within the Equality Act 2010 the legal timescale is six months less one day from the date the discriminatory incident happened in the sector of services and public functions.

For cases that fall under the Human Rights Act 1998, the legal timescale is one year from which the action that potentially breached your human rights took place.

However, due to the complexity of human rights cases it is best to speak to a legal professional. They will help to determine your legal timescale. Various factors could affect this – for example, the type of case.