Complaints Policy

We always aim to go above and beyond to deliver personalised health and wellbeing services in a friendly and compassionate way. Whilst we always try our best, we realise that sometimes we don’t always get things right. So, if you have concerns, suggestions or feedback about any of our pharmacies we’d love to hear them. We want to provide the best service possible, so we’ll take time to understand your feedback and use it constructively to improve our service.

It’s important that we always try to meet your immediate health needs and take any urgent action that may be needed before trying to resolve your complaint. This may mean contacting another healthcare professional like your GP. 

We treat all complaints with dignity and respect. We’ll only discuss confidential information if it’s needed to resolve your complaint and never with a third party, unless they have your permission.

We will ensure that:

• You will receive a timely and appropriate response 
• Your complaint is fully investigated
• You are treated with respect and courtesy
• We keep you informed with the progress of your complaint and the actions we are going to take
• We help you to understand our complaints procedure if needed

How to get in touch

Email us at digital@vsmpharmacy.co.uk

Phone us on 01276 21002 (Monday – Friday 09:00 – 13:00, 14:00 – 18:00)

Write to us at:
The Pharmacy Superintendent
VSM Pharmacy
124 Frimley Road
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 2QN

Complaints Policy – NHS Services

If your complaint is about an NHS service, for example dispensing your NHS prescription, you may find the following information useful

Complaints about NHS services which are not resolved to your satisfaction within 7 days may require further information. If your complaint is about one of our 

Pharmacies within:

England

Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days and an acceptable response period must be agreed with you. Your complaint will be dealt with in a timely manner. Usually this will be within 20 working days and no more than 40.

Read more

Working days under these regulations means Monday – Friday and excludes Bank Holidays. The acknowledgement may be over the phone by email or by letter. Investigations, if necessary, are normally conducted by a Regional Manager and are overseen by the Pharmacy Superintendent’s Team. We will retain records of all complaints and produce reports so that we can learn from feedback and work to improve the service we offer.

Complaints Policy – NHS Services (England)

We’ll always offer an apology, if appropriate, and aim to give you a full explanation to resolve the issue to your satisfaction. 

Our complaints procedure has two stages:

Stage One – Early, local resolution

We aim to resolve complaints quickly and close to where we provided the service. Where appropriate, this could mean an on the spot apology and explanation if something has gone wrong, and immediate action to resolve the problem.

Sometimes we will have to make some enquires before we can respond to your complaint. We will give you our decision at Stage One within 5 working days, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

If we cannot resolve your complaint at this stage we will explain why and tell you what you can do next. We may suggest you take your complaint to Stage Two. You can choose to do this immediately or after you get our initial decision.

Stage Two – Investigation

Stage Two deals with two types of complaint: those that have not been resolved at Stage One and those which are complex and require detailed investigation.

When using Stage Two we will:

• Acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days
• Where appropriate, discuss your complaint with you to understand why you remain dissatisfied and your preferred outcome
• Give you a full response to the complaint as soon as possible and within 20 working days

We will tell you if our investigation will take longer than 20 working days and agree a revised timeframe with you. We will keep you updated on progress throughout.

Working days under these regulations means Monday – Friday and excludes Bank Holidays. The acknowledgement may be over the phone by email or by letter. Investigations, if necessary, are normally conducted by an Owner and are overseen by the Superintendent Pharmacist.

We will retain records of all complaints and produce reports so that we can learn from feedback and work to improve the service we offer.

Complaints Manager: Thierry Thielens MPharm

Superintendent Pharmacist: Jirina Thielens MPharm

What if I am still dissatisfied?

If you are not satisfied with the way we handled your complaint, you can escalate your complaint to the local Primary Care Organisation or the Ombudsman

NHS England

Call 0300 3112233

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net  stating “For the attention of the complaints team” in the subject line

Write to:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT

The Ombudsman

Visit www.ombudsman.org.uk

Call the complaints helpline 0345 0154033

Email phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

Write to:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP