Complaints

Complaints

All complaints will be dealt with by the appropriate department as soon as they confirm receipt of the written or verbal complaint by the admin team or the complainant themselves.

The patient must provide written consent for their nominated individual to handle the complaint.

Should local resolution be achieved satisfactorily then there may not be any need for a formal complaint.

You should register your formal complaint or any other complaints by emailing general@berkeleypsychiatrists.co.uk.

On receipt of a formal complaint, the Registered Manager (Dr Hugo de Waal) will:

• Acknowledge a written complaint within three working days of receipt, enclose a complaints leaflet, or give a brief indication of the process and the anticipated time for response.
• Send a copy of the complaint to the relevant director or service lead asking them to advise on the most appropriate way of resolving the complaint, e.g. by a meeting, telephone call or investigation and formal letter.
• Ask the relevant director or service lead for a report on the concerns raised by the complainant.
• Upon receipt of the advice from the department, send a letter to the complainant on behalf of the BERKELEY PSYCHIATRISTS with either an offer of a meeting or telephone conversation with relevant staff in the department, or confirmation that a formal investigation is underway (again indicating anticipated time for response).
• Record the details of the complaint onto the Berkeley Psychiatrists ’s complaints register.
• Advise the Board of Directors of any complaints that may have legal implications.

If you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, you may request a review of your complaint by the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS). Please inform Berkeley Psychiatrists via the general@berkeleypsychiatrists.co.uk email address of your request within 14 days of receiving the response.

Complainants who require assistance

We will provide assistance to complainants where it is needed. For example, to complainants whose first language is not English or when the complainant has difficulty with reading or writing.

If the complainant’s first language is not English, they can contact us via email or post in order to request an interpreter to be made available to them.

For complainants who experience difficulty with reading or writing, we recommend that they can inform us of their complaint verbally. They can ring us via our phone number which can be accessed on our website.