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NHS Complaints Arrangements
The NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2005 are to be amended on 1 April 2009 to bring the complaints procedures into line with all other health and social care providers and organisations.
As the changes come into effect on 1 April 2009, pharmacy contractors (and other primary care providers) will need to modify their arrangements with some urgency.
We have updated all our complaints resources on the website, including a comprehensive briefing on the regulations – which can be found in the clinical governance section:
The major changes are:
Every contractor must appoint a responsible person – this must be the Chief Executive Officer, a partner or a sole proprietor as appropriate. The responsible person must ensure that the complaints arrangements are followed and any action plan arising from the investigation of the complaint is put into effect. Although the pharmacy contractor can authorise other persons to undertake the functions of the responsible person, the responsible person remains responsible. The complaints manager role continues as before.
Acknowledgement of receipt of a complaint must be made within 3 working days (formerly 2 days).
Oral complaints that have been resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant no later than the day following receipt of the complaint do not need to be dealt with under the reformed arrangements.
When acknowledging complaints, the complainant must be invited to discuss the handling of the complaint and to agree a response period. This replaces the current 25 days limit for sending the response at the end of the complaint. If the complainant chooses not to discuss these matters, the pharmacy contractor must write to the complainant setting out the response period. There is no longer a statutory period of 25 days.
If the response has not been sent within 6 months, the explanation must be recorded and the complainant informed.
A complainant who is not satisfied with the outcome will have a right to complain to the Health Services Ombudsman (currently the Healthcare Commission).
The pharmacy must keep a record of all complaints, and the record is required to include specified details.
The pharmacy must prepare an annual report of complaints received, together with a summary of information about the nature of the complaints. This must be made available to any person on request and the pharmacy contractor must send a copy of the annual report to the PCT. The annual report is for the period ending 31 March.
Existing complaints made before 1 April 2009 should continue to be dealt with under the current regulations.
Posted 16 March 2009