NHS Lothian is committed to improving the services it provides for patients and their families. We encourage all forms of feedback, including complaints, and use it to continuously improve our services.
Compliment
You may want to thank staff or share your thoughts about something that has been done well. This can be done directly to the department or you may want to share it via our online feedback form to share your compliment.
Concerns
You may wish to share your views or experience about a service or the care and treatment you have received. It may be things you’ve observed; such as not enough parking, poor signage, not enough information on a treatment offered, and you wish to highlight this as an area that could be improved. This can be done directly to the department or you may want to share via our online feedback form to share your concern.
Complaints
NHS Lothian’s definition of a complaint is: ‘An expression of dissatisfaction by one or more members of the public about the Board’s action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by or on behalf of the Board.’ Please complete our online feedback form to share your complaint
What can I complain about?
You can complain about things like:
• Your care and/or treatment;
• Delays;
• A failure to provide a service;
• An inadequate standard of service;
• A lack of information and clarity about appointments;
• Difficulty in making contact with us for appointments or queries;
• Treatment by or attitude of a member of our staff;
• Scheduled or unscheduled ambulance care;
• Transport concerns, either to, from or within the healthcare environment;
• Environmental or domestic issues;
• Operational and procedural issues;
• Our failure to follow the appropriate process; and
• Your dissatisfaction with our policy
What can’t I complain about?
There are some things we cannot deal with through our complaints handling procedure.
These include:
• A routine first-time request for a service, for example a request for an appointment or a request for a specific course of treatment;
• A request for a second opinion in respect of care or treatment;
• Matters relating to private healthcare or treatment;
• Matters relating to services not provided by or funded by the NHS;
• A previously concluded complaint or a request to have a complaint reconsidered where we have already given our final decision;
• A complaint made by an employee of the NHS Board or health service provider or other person in relation to their employment contract;
• A complaint that is being or has been investigated by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO);
• A complaint arising from a suggested failure to comply with a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act; and
• A complaint about which you have commenced legal proceedings, or have clearly stated that you intend to do so, rather than pursue the matter using the NHS complaints procedure.
We also realise that it is not possible to list everything that you cannot complain about. If other procedures can help you resolve your concerns, we will give information and advice to help you. Please see our FAQ’s if you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint or the complaints handling procedure.
