Complaint handling procedure

It is important to us that you are happy with the care you receive. However, we are aware that pregnancy and birth are anxious times for you as a family, and sometimes the little things can mount up and spoil your experience if they are not addressed promptly.

If you are not completely happy with any element of the care you are receiving, we urge you to speak directly, as soon as possible to the midwife or health professional caring for you. Often, small misunderstandings regarding appointment times, suggestions or advice, for example, can easily be rectified at the time. It is much better for you to be honest and tell us, fix any problem straight away and everyone to be happy going forward.

If your concerns are more serious, or you feel that you cannot get a resolution by talking to your midwife directly, we want you to contact us as soon as possible. Please don’t delay. We ask for your concern in writing so that we have a full record of the issues. You can contact us:

Via email at info@privatemidwives,com
By post – Private Midwives, The Heath Business Park, Runcorn, WA7 4QX, UK.

We have a procedure for you to follow so that your complaint can be addressed in a structured manner.

When you raise a concern or complaint to us, we will listen to you, investigate, review your notes, respond to you in writing and outline any remedy and actions that we are going to take.

Private Midwives are members of the Independent Healthcare Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS). Complaints will be handled in accordance with their Code of Practice. A copy can be found here:

https://www.iscas.org.uk

What is a complaint?

A complaint is any communication about our goods or services where the customer is dissatisfied and we need to investigate and formally respond. Our complaints process covers all aspects relating to the content and quality of care you receive from us. It does not cover care received from other providers.

Who else can I raise concerns to?

If you have any concerns at all, please notify us. However, sometimes we may direct you to a more appropriate route to raise your concerns. For example: If you believe a criminal act has been committed, you should notify the police. If you have a financial dispute that is not resolved by the complaints process, you should make a claim with the small claims court. Concerns relating to the professional conduct or a midwife can be escalated to the NMC in UK or NMBI in Ireland. Concerns relating to the organisation can be escalated to the CQC in England. Our complaints process includes an opportunity for escalation to an independent arbitration services.

Complaints process:

We include a written leaflet in all of our clinical notes on “how to make a complaint”. There is also a copy here (below). Once your complaint is received, we will send you a copy of our complaint handling procedure – again this is included below. This sets out timeframes so you know what to expect and when. A senior manager will be identified to investigate your complaint and they will be your point of contact. On occasion we may need to seek external expert advice. In raising your complaint, you are giving us permission to share your medical records with appropriate experts in order for us to investigate fully and respond to you in full. However, we will always talk to you before any information is shared and gain your consent.

If your complaint is outside of the timeframes stipulated below, we will investigate your concerns and respond as a single stage, final response.

How to make a complaint

Please email your complaint to info@privatemidwives.com

You can telephone us to express your concerns. If you do so, we will collate your concerns into an email and send to you asking you to verify we have understood correctly. If you are complaining but you are not our client (for example you are the partner or relative) we will need the written permission of the client to verify the concerns are correct and they are happy for us to investigate. In all cases, the complaint response is sent to the client and it is their choice who they share the response with.

If you require assistance to make your complaint, do not have access to email or or require information and support, please feel free to call us on 0800 3800 579 and we will assist you.

The process and timeframes are summarised in the downloadable documents below. Complaints received outside the timeframes stipulated, without exceptional reasons, will be acknowledged but may not be investigated as the ability of staff members to recall events with accuracy and detail may be compromised.