Complaints Policy

Before anything else

• Complaining will never affect the care you receive. Nobody will treat you differently.
• You do not need to work out who to complain to. Contact either of us and we will route it.
• If something has gone wrong with your care, we will tell you, apologise and explain — whether or not you ask.
• If you are worried about your health right now, this is not the route. Contact your Treating Provider, or call 999 in an emergency.

1. Who handles what

Two organisations are involved in doctor.uk, and they handle different things.

Your Treating Provider’s contact details are in the provider details panel on your documents. The single entry point for any complaint is hello@doctor.uk.

You will never be passed back and forth. Where a complaint spans both organisations, one of us takes the lead and gives you a single response.

2. How to complain

2.1Email hello@doctor.uk, write to us, phone us, or ask a member of staff to record it for you. You do not need to use the word “complaint”, use a form, or set it out in any particular way.

2.2It helps if you can tell us what happened, when, who was involved, and what you would like us to do — but tell us what you can and we will ask if we need more.

2.3Someone can complain for you — a relative, friend or advocate — if you give your written consent. If you are unable to give consent, we will consider a complaint from someone acting in your interests.

2.4Please complain within 12 months of what happened, or of realising there was a problem. We will still look at older complaints where there is a good reason and it is still possible to investigate fairly.

2.5If you need help making a complaint — an interpreter, a different format, more time, or someone to talk it through with — tell us and we will arrange it.

3. What happens

4. If you are not satisfied

4.1Tell us. We will review the response, and where appropriate someone more senior will look at it again.

4.2If you remain unhappy, ask us to escalate. Your complaint will be reviewed by someone more senior who has not been involved in it, and you will get a further written response.

4.3As a private patient you cannot take a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which covers NHS care. That is why the routes below matter, and why our own decision is not the end of the matter. Every one of them is open to you at any time, whether or not you have been through our process first.

4.4Going through our process first does not stop you doing any of the following, at any time:

5. When something goes wrong with your care

5.1If something goes wrong and causes you harm, or could have, your Treating Provider will tell you — without waiting to be asked. This is the duty of candour and it applies whether or not you complain.

5.2You will get an apology, an explanation of what happened so far as it is known at the time, what is being done to find out more, and what is being done to stop it happening again.

5.3An apology is not an admission of legal liability and does not affect your right to make a claim.

6. What we do with complaints

6.1Complaints are recorded separately from your clinical record. Your care is not affected by having complained, and future clinicians will not see a complaint flag against your name.

6.2We look at complaints together at least quarterly to find patterns — a complaint that reveals a problem in the service is more useful to us than one that does not.

6.3Complaint records are kept for 10 years so that patterns can be seen over time, and are treated as confidential.

6.4Where you complain to your Treating Provider about something Doctor UK Health did, or the reverse, we share only what is needed to investigate and answer you.

7. Anonymous concerns and concerns raised by staff

You can raise a concern anonymously. We will look into it, though we may not be able to investigate as fully or tell you the outcome.

Our staff and clinicians can raise patient safety concerns without fear of any consequence, and are encouraged to.

Your Treating Provider

This panel identifies the provider responsible for your care. Where more than one provider participates, it is completed for the provider treating you.

Website operator: Doctor UK Health Ltd, trading as Doctor.uk. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17442409. Registered office: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. Doctor UK Health Ltd is not a healthcare provider.

Version history

Superseded versions are retained and are not deleted, so that the position in force on any past date can be established.