At Heath Lodge Clinic we pride ourselves on delivering outstanding customer service to all of our patients, ensuring they are treated with the utmost care, compassion and respect. We are an independent clinic renowned for providing imaging and pain management services carried out by our dedicated team of clinicians and we take pride in delivering the best clinical results possible.

If you are pleased with our service, we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to use our patient feedback forms that are located throughout the clinic.
Despite this, there may be times when we don’t meet our own high standards of care or communication; where this is the case, we will always try and rectify the situation and be open and honest if things haven’t gone to plan. If you require assistance with making your complaint we will endeavour to help and support you through the process.
Raising a concern or complaint
We welcome the chance to rectify problems immediately: the most effective way to resolve any concern is by letting us know on the day it happens – a senior manager will be happy to listen to your concerns and aim to resolve your complaint efficiently and effectively on the day. However, this may not always be possible and an investigation or further opinion may be required.

Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with a senior manager to discuss your concerns. The complaints procedure will be explained to you, you can be assured that your concerns will be dealt with promptly. It will be helpful if you are as specific as possible about your complaint. At the appointment the aim is to:
• Find out what happened and what went wrong;
• Make it possible for you to discuss the problem;

The process of investigation for more complex complaints is broken down into three stages to ensure patients always have the chance to have the facts re-examined if they are not happy with the outcome, this process is set out below.

Local Resolution (Stage One)
Service (non-medical) complaints: All service related complaints will be investigated by the clinic’s Patient Experience Manager or their deputy and you will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within three working days. This may be by email, letter or telephone. After you have received this, you will normally be provided with a formal response within 20 working days. Should we need any longer to investigate the issues raised, we will write to let you know.

Clinical or Medical complaints: If your complaint is regarding a clinical or medical procedure or treatment, this will be investigated by the Clinic’s Medical Team which includes the Clinical Director. Once this has taken place you will receive a detailed response to your complaint within 20 working days by letter or email, and if necessary a clinical follow-up appointment will be made for you.

Senior Management Review (Stage Two)
If you are not happy with the outcome of the first investigation that you have received you can choose to escalate your complaint to our Senior Management Team for a second review. Your complaint will be acknowledged by a member of the Senior Management Team as appropriate, and a full response will be provided following investigation. As per stage one, this is normally within 20 working days, although we aim to respond quicker than this where possible. Should we require any longer to conclude our investigation, you will be notified and given a timeframe for receipt.

Independent Review (Stage Three)
If the stage two review process is exhausted and you remain unhappy with our response or do not agree with the way in which we have handled your complaint, then you can find more information at:
• Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) – specialises in mediation and alternative dispute resolution: https://www.cedr.com/
• The Patients Association: https://www.patients association.org.uk/private-healthcare
• Care Quality Commission: https://www.cqc.org.uk/
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/

Time limits for complaint escalation or review
All complaints should be made as soon as possible, and must be initially raised (stage one) no more than six months after:
1. the date of the event complained about; or
2. the date you became aware of the issue.

This time limit may be extended at our discretion where it can be proven that there have been prohibitive circumstances for raising the issue within the normal time limit and there is still a realistic opportunity of conducting a fair and effective investigation into the issues raised.
If you wish to make a formal complaint, please contact us in writing or by email providing as much information as possible; your name and address; your appointment date, time, your referrer and the service we provided to you. Tell us as much as you can about you, and about what has happened. If you are unhappy about more than one thing, please give your points numbers.
If you wish a representative to complain on your behalf, we will need your consent to communicate with them in order to safeguard confidentiality.
Please address your letter to: Clinic Support Manager, Heath Lodge Clinic, 1357 Warwick Road, Knowle, West Midlands B93 9LW or email: patient experience@heathlodgeclinic.co.uk