Complaints. It goes without saying that nobody likes receiving them, and they can seriously dent practice morale. However, if handled in the right way, complaints can be a good thing for your practice – which is something we’ll explore in this blog. The good news when it comes to complaints is that the total number…

By Nicola Davies I’ve just had the joy that is the new complaints spreadsheet return. Well, there’s an hour or two of my life that I won’t get back. What a complete load of old tosh! As a relic of primary care, I’m used to form-filling, tick-boxing, filling out endless surveys… and I appreciate that…

Finding it hard to respond to negative patient reviews? Here are a few tips from Yorkshire Medical Marketing to get a positive outcome for your practice. After a long day of juggling a phone that never stops ringing, a long line of patients and not enough appointments to go around, you’d probably prefer to stick…

Following on from our article last week that looked at how and why practices can benefit from proactively seeking feedback – especially negative feedback – this week the focus of our attention is on the need for professionalism when dealing with complaints. It’s an area that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman says is an…

Earlier this year, NHS Digital reported that the number of complaints levelled at GP practices had ‘surged’. GPs and dentists received a total of 8,000 more written complaints in the 2016/17 year than in the previous year. This represented a 9.7% increase as the total reached 90,600, according to the figures. About half the complaints…

Have you ever wondered if anyone is talking about your surgery online? Has one of your partners made the headlines for helping in the community? Or has someone perhaps unfairly criticised an encounter at the surgery? A free service offered by Google called Google Alerts can help you keep track of any online mentions of…

Talking to a practice manager who also happens to be a CQC inspector – expect an outstanding rating for that practice! – it seems that one of the areas practices frequently fall down on during inspections surrounds Significant Events. “The variation in how these processes are managed in practices is stark,” we were told. “Yet…