Raising concerns and making complaints
Here you will find details of how to make a complaint to Health Scotland. It also explains our procedure for managing complaints made by individuals or organisations.
Raising concerns, making complaints or offering suggestions about the work of Health Scotland.
Quick links on this page:
Background
Contact details
Concerns, suggestions and feedback
Complaints
Monitoring of complaints
Staff training
Background
Health Scotland aims to be open and transparent in all its business activities and to provide a high quality service at all times. However, it is recognised that there may be occasions where individuals or organisations are dissatisfied by some aspect of Health Scotland’s work. We hope this procedure sets out clearly how we will resolve any complaints and deal with any concerns or feedback.
This procedure does not cover requests for information made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. This is covered separately under Freedom of Information.
Contact details
If you have a concern or complaint or would like to provide some feedback or suggestions about the work of Health Scotland then please contact:
John W Cameron
Board Secretary
NHS Health Scotland
Woodburn House
Canaan Lane
Edinburgh
EH10 4SG
Tel: 0131 536 5509
E-mail: john.cameron@health.scot.nhs.uk
Concerns, suggestions and feedback
We welcome any feedback that will contribute to improving the quality of Health Scotland’s services. Informal concerns about our work or suggestions for improvement may be raised at any time in writing, by telephone or email.
All concerns received will be acknowledged, noted and the person raising the concern will be advised of the outcome if they wish. It is recognised that a failure to act on a concern raised may result in a formal complaint at a later stage.
Complaints
If you wish to make a formal complaint about the way Health Scotland has conducted its business then please do so either in writing, by telephone or email. Where a formal complaint is received by telephone, it will be recorded in writing and sent to the complainer to confirm that Health Scotland is aware of all aspects of the complaint.
Health Scotland will make arrangements for anyone who requires impartial advice to make a complaint from a local Independent Advice and Support Service, operated by the Citizens Advice Bureaux. Contact details of these services are available from local Citizens Advice Bureaux.
All complaints received will be acknowledged and passed to the Chief Executive, within 4 working days. The Chief Executive will decide on how the complaint should be dealt with. The aim is to provide a full written reply from the Chief Executive within 20 working days. If a full reply is not possible within this timescale, an explanation will be provided within 20 working days indicating when a full reply will be provided.
If the complainer remains dissatisfied, a complaint should be made to Health Scotland’s Chair, addressed to our office at Woodburn House. If the complainer continues to be dissatisfied, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman can consider complaints further. The Ombudsman may be contacted at:
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NS
Tel: 0870 377 7330
Email: enquiries@scottishombudsman.org.uk
Complaints about the Chief Executive or a Board Member should be addressed to our Chair. Complaints received will be acknowledged and passed to the Chair within 4 working days.
Monitoring of complaints
Health Scotland recognises that complaints can be useful for improving how we carry out our business. We will therefore monitor the nature of complaints and any outcomes to learn from any mistakes. The Chief Executive will provide a summary report of complaints and their handling to the Chair on a quarterly basis.
Summary information of all complaints will be published in our Annual Report.
Staff training
All staff dealing with concerns, complaints or suggestions within Health Scotland will be provided with appropriate training that will form part of our induction to the organisation.