Mystery Shopping: Making a complaint in your GP surgery
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Between March and April 2014, East Sussex Community Voice, though its Healthwatch East Sussex functions carried out a mystery shopping exercise. 1.2.The aim was to explore what is the provision of complaints advice and information available in GP Surgeries across East Sussex. They visited 44 out of 114 GP practices in East Sussex.
The material collected from each visit which explained a practice’s complaints process varied in availability and quality. In the majority of the visits the volunteer needed to ask at reception for information, which may prove to be a barrier for some patients.
Availability of information in other languages or for those needing assistance to read was also not immediately available. Only one practice produced a booklet specifically aimed at helping people who did not speak English as their first language.
The booklets were found to be a good source of information generally, and reception staff were happy to show the volunteer where the complaints information was, or indicate who they could write to in the first instance. This was usually found to be the Practice Manager.
Where booklets or specific comments/complaints forms were not made available, the quality of information was, in some cases, found to be poor, either written on post it notes, scraps of paper or on forms for other surgery functions. This is not a good way of ensuring that the patient has a positive experience when being able to inform their practice of any area of their support which they felt was not adequately delivered. There is the potential, that if the information patients are given is not escalated and responded to in a professional manner, the patient will have little or no confidence that a complaint or issue will be dealt with effectively.
Most reception staff encountered were friendly and empathetic to the volunteers when they asked about the complaints process. In cases where staff did not know or were unsure of their practice complaints procedure, they did make efforts to find out. However in one instance, the volunteer was waiting for over 10 minutes and needed to ask the staff for an update. Again while it is positive that staff are engaged and proactive when dealing with volunteers, keeping a patient informed if there is a delay in locating the information requested would be beneficial.
A few staff were found to be dismissive or unhelpful, which again would present a significant barrier to anyone making a complaint.
The inclusion of the Adult Social Care leaflet “How to Make A Comment, Compliment or Complaint” (IL03) is a valuable addition to any area with information available; however, where no specific information is available this may be seen as the way to make a complaint directly to the practice. It is acknowledged within this document that any complaints made which do not fall within Adult Social Care services will be passed on to the appropriate partner organisation, this will obviously incur some time delay while the information is passed on. There is also a risk that the person making the complaint may ask for an update from the practice concerned, which may not be aware that a complaint had been made in the first instance.