NHS or national health care system is the publicly funded health care system in the United Kingdom.
NHS is responsible for providing healthcare to the residents of United Kingdom.
It provides primary care and long term health care, including dentistry and ophthalmology.
It has been established to ensure the same health facilities to all, regardless of wealth.
Doctors have always been blessing for the people in pain.
Medical treatment always goes well, but occasionally, some unfavourable events may happen.
After all, doctors and nurses are human beings.
They can make mistakes.
However, these mistakes can be of very severe kind and should not be ignored.
NHS constitution has established an organised system for receiving the complaints.
It is necessary to ensure seamless service for the patients.
It is way to provide an open access to the information about the services, treatment and performance.
The complaint system allows you to record your opinion, if you are not happy or satisfied with the care and treatment you have received.
The complaint system is meant for dealing with the complaints efficiently.
The dealing involves proper and prompt investigation of the matter.
You can either complain to the service or to the local primary care trust that made that service.
If you had faced any problem, the complaint should be made within 12 months of the date of the event.
This time limit might be extended due to any grieve or undergoing trauma.
In case of problem, you first have to report the matter in front of the practitioner or to the complaint manager designated by the organisation.
This is termed as local resolution.
Maximum efforts are made to resolve the matter at this stage.
If you are not satisfied with the local resolution procedure, you can go for an independent review.
Your report goes to the independent review secretariat.
It is a legal body that is independent of National Health Service.
You get the address of the independent review secretariat with the envelope, provided with the decision or result of the local resolution.
The complaining time limit for the independent review is four weeks.
Here, the reviewer may refer the matter back to the local resolution for reconsideration.
He may refer the matter outside the NHS complaint procedure to the relevant professional body.
It involves setting up a separate unbiased panel for the investigation of the complaint.
If it is observed that the decision of the result of the local resolution is sufficient, no further action is taken.
If you are still unhappy with the result of the independent review, you are not allowed to take any direct legal action.
However, you can forward the matter to seek a judicial review.
This judicial review is independent of NHS.
It is basically a procedure in which the court of laws revises the decisions made by the local bodies.
If you think that you are not getting justice, you can take a legal action against the practitioner.
This process is very complex and costly.
Your complaints regarding the negligence and misconduct of the practitioner are heard by a panel with full attention.
The disciplinary committee address the behaviour and negligence to prevent him from practicing in the future.