Patient Feedback & Complaints
LSDC Healthcare is committed to providing safe, respectful and high-quality care. If your experience has not met the standard you expected, we want to hear from you.
Raising a concern or complaint will not adversely affect your treatment, access to care or relationship with LSDC Healthcare.
We aim to listen carefully, investigate fairly and provide a clear response to the issues you raise.
Complaint information is handled securely and shared only where necessary to investigate and respond appropriately.
We welcome the opportunity to put things right.
We want every patient to feel listened to, respected and confident in the care they receive at LSDC Healthcare. Feedback, including complaints, helps us understand where an experience has fallen short and where improvements may be needed.
Where possible, concerns can often be resolved quickly by speaking with a member of our team. If you would prefer to make a formal complaint, or if an issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you are welcome to use the process set out below.
Patient Experience & Complaints
complaints@lsdc.ukEmail is usually the simplest way to send us a formal complaint and any relevant information. You may also complain by telephone, in person or by post.
Send an emailSpeak to any member of the LSDC Healthcare team and tell them that you would like to raise a concern or complaint.
By post
Patient Experience & Complaints
LSDC Healthcare
23 Widegate Street
London E1 7HP
You can contact us yourself or ask someone to represent you.
We accept complaints from patients and, where appropriate, people acting on their behalf.
Patients
Current or former LSDC Healthcare patients may raise a concern or complaint about their care, treatment or experience.
Representatives
A family member, carer or other representative may complain on a patient's behalf. We may need the patient's consent before discussing confidential information.
Where consent is not possible
If a patient is unable to provide consent, we will consider what information can appropriately be shared in accordance with confidentiality, capacity and legal requirements.
Please raise concerns as soon as you reasonably can.
Raising an issue promptly usually makes it easier for us to understand what happened, speak with those involved and review the relevant information.
If significant time has passed, you may still contact us. We will consider whether a fair and meaningful investigation remains possible in the circumstances.
What should I include?
You do not need to use a particular form. Please provide as much relevant information as you reasonably can.
- Your name and preferred contact details.
- The name of the patient, if you are complaining on their behalf.
- The date or approximate date of the care or event concerned.
- The clinician, service or area involved, if known.
- A clear description of what happened and what concerns you.
- Any relevant correspondence or supporting information.
- What you would like us to consider or do in response.
What happens after we receive your complaint?
Our aim is to deal with complaints openly, fairly and without unnecessary delay. The level of investigation will depend on the nature and complexity of the concerns raised.
We acknowledge your complaint
We aim to acknowledge formal complaints within 3 working days.
We will confirm that your complaint has been received and, where appropriate, let you know who is responsible for managing it.
Target: within 3 working daysWe review and investigate
We will consider the issues you have raised, review relevant records and information and, where appropriate, speak with the clinicians or team members involved.
We may contact you if we need clarification or further information. We may also ask what outcome you are seeking so that we can understand what matters most to you.
We provide our Stage 1 response
We aim to provide a substantive written response within 20 working days of receiving the complaint.
Depending on the circumstances, our response may explain what we found, address the issues raised, identify any action taken and include an apology where appropriate.
Some complaints are more complex and may require additional time. If this happens, we will let you know and keep you appropriately updated.
Stage 1 target: within 20 working daysIf you remain dissatisfied
If you believe our Stage 1 response has not adequately addressed your complaint, you may ask us to review it under our Stage 2 process.
Please explain which aspects of the response you remain dissatisfied with and why. Where practicable, the review will be undertaken by an appropriately senior person who was not materially responsible for the original response.
We aim to acknowledge the request within 3 working days and provide the Stage 2 outcome within 20 working days. If more time is reasonably required, we will keep you informed.
Stage 2 target: within 20 working daysWhat you can expect from us.
Fairness, confidentiality and patient safety.
Confidentiality
Complaints are handled with appropriate confidentiality. Access to complaint information is restricted to those who reasonably need it in order to review, investigate, respond to or oversee the matter.
Relevant clinical information may need to be reviewed as part of an investigation. Information will only be shared outside LSDC Healthcare where this is necessary and appropriate, permitted by law or professional obligations, or where you have given consent.
Complaints made on behalf of a patient
We welcome concerns raised by relatives, carers or representatives, but our duty of confidentiality remains with the patient.
We may therefore ask for written authority from the patient before sharing details about their care or our investigation. Where the patient cannot provide consent, we will consider the circumstances and applicable legal and professional requirements.
Anonymous complaints
You may raise a concern without identifying yourself. We will consider and investigate anonymous concerns as far as reasonably possible, although our ability to respond directly or investigate some matters may be limited without further information.
Accessibility and support
If you need reasonable support to make a complaint, please tell us. We will consider appropriate assistance, including accessible communication formats or language support where reasonably required.
Other organisations
Sometimes a complaint may involve another healthcare provider, hospital, laboratory, clinician or organisation. Where information from another organisation is required, we will consider confidentiality and consent requirements before sharing patient information.
Patient safety and safeguarding
Where a complaint raises an immediate patient safety, safeguarding, professional or regulatory concern, we may need to take action before the wider complaint investigation is complete.
This may include escalation to an appropriate safeguarding authority, professional regulator or other relevant body where required or justified.
Duty of Candour
Where a complaint relates to a patient safety incident to which statutory Duty of Candour requirements apply, LSDC Healthcare will act in accordance with its applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
Learning from complaints
We record and review complaints so that recurring themes, potential risks and opportunities for improvement can be identified.
Where appropriate, learning may lead to changes in processes, staff guidance, training, communication, clinical governance or the way services are delivered.
External information and escalation.
If you remain dissatisfied after completing LSDC Healthcare's internal complaints process, we will explain in our final response any external complaint or review route that is applicable to your circumstances.
The appropriate route can depend on the nature of the service, how your care was funded and whether a relevant independent complaints scheme or regulatory process applies.
Care Quality Commission
LSDC Healthcare is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC regulates health and social care services in England and welcomes information about people's experiences of care.
The CQC does not normally investigate or resolve individual complaints on a patient's behalf, but information shared with it may be used in its regulatory work.
Privately funded healthcare
External complaint arrangements for privately funded healthcare are not the same as the NHS complaints system. We will not direct you to an independent adjudication scheme unless that scheme applies to LSDC Healthcare and to your complaint.
Where another external route is relevant, details will be provided as part of our final complaint response.
Complaints channels are not monitored as an emergency service.
If you need urgent medical advice or believe there is an immediate risk to someone's health or safety, please use the appropriate urgent or emergency healthcare service rather than waiting for a response to a complaint.
In a medical emergency in the UK, call 999 or attend the nearest Accident & Emergency department. For urgent medical advice that is not an emergency, NHS 111 may be appropriate.
We want to hear from you.
If something about your experience at LSDC Healthcare has concerned you, please contact us. Raising a complaint will not adversely affect the care you receive from us.
complaints@lsdc.ukContact the Complaints Team
