Complaints

Our aim is to provide the best possible service to everyone who has contact with us. This may be within the In-Patient Unit, our Out-Patient services, in patients’ homes or care homes, in our shops or at our fundraising events.

We continually look for ways of improving the way we work. You are in the best position to judge how we are doing and we certainly need you to tell us when we get it wrong. When mistakes do happen we are committed to acknowledging them, apologising and putting things right for the future quickly and effectively. We are also pleased to receive letters of praise for our staff and volunteers, and for the service they provide.

You can make a complaint about an area of our work by writing to the Chief Executive. The freepost address to do this is: Chief Executive, Freepost RTJT-UBBS-GGZR, St Gemma’s Hospice, 329 Harrogate Road, Leeds LS17 6QD. Alternatively you can contact us as follows:

Phone: 0113 218 5500
Email: postmaster@st-gemma.co.uk
Fill in our contact form

If you require help or support in making complaints we can provide it to you. Someone else can also make a complaint on your behalf, with your consent.

What happens to complaints

If you are not satisfied with the response to your comments or suggestions, or if you wish to make a formal complaint, you may speak with, or write to, the Chief Executive. When the Chief Executive receives a written complaint, we will correspond with you in the way you wish – by letter, email or telephone. We will confirm to you that we have received and recorded your communication within five working days.

A senior manager will investigate your complaint and the Chief Executive will aim to send a full response to you outlining their findings within thirty working days of the receipt of your communication unless there are complexities that make this impossible. In these circumstances we will let you know of the delay, and when we expect to report to you in full. If we find the complaint is upheld we will let you know what we are doing to ensure matters are put right in order to prevent it happening again.

If you are not happy with the way our Chief Executive responds to your complaint, you may write to the Chair of the Board of Trustees at St. Gemma’s Hospice, who will consider the complaint made, the actions taken and our response to you, and consider whether any further investigation is required.

Anyone who makes a comment or complaint will not be discriminated against or treated differently by any member of staff for making such a comment or complaint. Details of comments and complaints will not be held on patient records and will not adversely impact on the care of any of our service users.

We are usually only able to respond to complaints that relate to circumstances that have arisen, or come to your attention, in the past 12 months, unless there are reasonable grounds for the delay and the complaint can still be reasonably investigated.

EXTERNAL REGULATORS

St Gemma’s has a number of external regulators. Most of these require that you have notified St Gemma’s of your complaint so that we can investigate it before you raise it with the regulator. Regulators include the Charity Commission, The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Parliamentary & Health Services Ombudsman, the Fundraising Regulator and the Information Commissioners Office. We can provide details of other regulators who may be able to support you if you are dissatisfied with the way St Gemma’s Hospice has responded to your complaint.