Complaints

Complaints

We would like to hear about your experiences with the health professional regulatory bodies. We will keep all the information that we receive from you secure.

We will take your information into account when we:

• Audit the initial stages of the regulatory bodies’ fitness to practise processes
• Review the regulatory bodies’ final fitness to practise decisions
• Carry out the performance review of the regulatory bodies
• Carry out projects on health professional regulation

Complaints process

We do not have legal powers to investigate complaints about the regulatory bodies but we can, with your agreement, send your complaint to a regulator and ask for its comments.

Before we do this, we will check that:

• You have already complained to the regulator
• Your complaint cannot be dealt with by another organisation
• Dealing with your complaint could help to improve health professional regulation and promote the health, safety and well-being of patients and other members of the public.

Complaints we may take forward

• Delays
• Failures in the management of a fitness to practise case
• Customer service
• Failures in the process of quality assuring educational institutions
• Final decisions made by a fitness to practise committee which you consider to be unduly lenient. We will consider these complaints under our powers of appeal. However, they need to be dealt with within a strict legal timescale, which is 40 days from the date of the hearing or the last date on which the registrant could appeal against the decision. Therefore you should make sure your complaint is sent to us promptly.

Complaints we may not take forward

• Financial activity or business arrangements e.g. setting of fees or charges set by the regulator
• Decisions not to refer a complaint for a formal hearing in front of a fitness to practise committee
• Support for clinical techniques
• Registration application decisions
• Final decisions made by a fitness to practise committee which you consider to be too severe.

We will follow our policy on Complaints about the Health Professional Regulators when dealing with your complaint.

If you are unhappy with the service that we have provided, you can complain using the complaints about us policy.

We also have a policy on unreasonably persistent contact and unacceptable behaviour.