If you have suffered a breach of duty of care when undergoing hospital treatment, you may wish to make a complaint about your hospital treatment for many reasons.
Perhaps you want medical professionals to learn a lesson so other patients aren’t subjected to the same treatment, or maybe you wish to make a hospital negligence claim.
If you want to complain about hospital negligence, we’re here to help you navigate the steps to make this happen.
Complaining about Hospital Care
Suffering due to hospital negligence can be quite upsetting and stressful, but we’re here to help guide you through how to complain.
However, we recommend talking in terms of your ‘complaint’ about your care at this stage rather than a claim. After all, the individual or hospital you want to complain to might be more open during the complaints procedure if you give them the opportunity to resolve the matter without legal involvement.
You can complain about an NHS hospital within twelve months of an occurrence or mistreatment. Alternatively, you can complain within twelve months of realising that you could have obtained an injury from NHS hospital care.
We’ll talk you through how you can complain about hospital negligence below.
Who Do You Complain to about Hospital Care?
Who you complain to concerning hospital negligence really depends on whether you want to make an informal or formal complaint. If you are making an informal complaint, speaking directly to the medical professional in question or their manager would be wise. If you wish to conduct a formal complaint, you should follow the hospital’s official complaint procedure, which we will discuss below.
How to Make a Complaint about a Hospital
Here’s our recommended process regarding how to file a complaint about a hospital:
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Explore PALS and complaints
Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) NHS complaints are a good place to start regarding where to complain about hospital treatment.
If you are unhappy with NHS hospital care, you can access PALS free of charge. Here, you will find a team member available to help you with your problem informally.
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Make an informal complaint directly to the hospital
Following this, if you still feel the need to make a hospital complaint, you can find out the name of the hospital’s Patient Representative or Complaints Coordinator via the website or by speaking to the hospital directly.
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Make a formal complaint about a hospital
You can also send your written complaint to the Patient Representative or Complaints Coordinator. If you need support with writing your complaint, just let us know and we can advise you.
We recommend communicating in writing so you can easily keep a copy of your complaint for future reference.
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Attend a meeting if applicable
You may be invited to a meeting to discuss things further. You can attend the meeting if you wish, but if you really do not like the idea of attending, you are not obliged to do so; just insist on a full written response.
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Seek legal advice
If you seek compensation for your experience of hospital negligence and have not received a satisfactory response from your hospital, you may wish to get in touch with Medical Solicitors. Our legal experts can advise you on whether you have a valid claim and can help you navigate this process.
How to Write a Letter of Complaint to an NHS Hospital
When it comes to how to make a complaint against a hospital, there are some important factors to include in your letter or email, such as:
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Details of the treatment received, your concerns, and why you are unsatisfied with the treatment
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Information regarding the action you have already executed to make the complaint
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Details of what you would like to achieve, whether this is a simple apology (which can be obtained through an informal complaint) or compensation
You should always keep a copy of your complaint communications and any responses you receive back from the practice.
Making a Complaint about a Hospital: Taking Things Further
If you are unhappy with the hospital’s response to your complaint or they fail to respond, you can take the complaint further in a number of ways.
For NHS hospital complaints, you have the right to access NHS England Complaints services (the NHS complaints department) free of charge, which can provide some assistance in this process.
Additionally, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman may be able to help by investigating complaints about NHS hospital services. You should not contact this service until you have completed your hospital’s formal complaints procedure.
If you have experienced hospital negligence in a private setting, you may wish to contact the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service for an independent review or report the issue to the Care Quality Commission if the issue involves safety or quality concerns. This organisation is also commonly used when complaining about care homes.
Please see our page on how to complain about private care for more information.
Do Hospitals Take Patient Complaints Seriously?
The answer here is yes. Hospitals take complaints seriously, with Risk Management taking on the responsibility to listen to each patient issue. Hospitals are obliged to take note of any complaints by patients and respond via written communication as soon as they have been addressed.
Make a Negligence Claim against a Hospital
If you think you have experienced hospital negligence and seek compensation, please contact our expert team for more guidance. Our experienced lawyers can help you navigate the process of making a complaint about hospital negligence and answer any questions you may have. We can also help you obtain the compensation you deserve.
We can also help you navigate how to complain about optometry, GP, and dental negligence.
We take pride in our No Win, No Fee agreement, or Conditional Fee Agreement, meaning you have nothing to lose by contacting us.