Poor complaint handling by GP provider

What happened

Mr C complained to a GP practice about difficulty obtaining an appointment for his mother, who has dementia, when she was ill. The response from the practice manager was rude and aggressive, and blamed Mr C for what had happened. Mr C came to us, and we contacted Malling Health as the parent company. Malling Health investigated and met Mr C to discuss his concerns. Mr C was not satisfied with the way Malling Health handled his complaint so he came back to us.

What we found

We considered that Malling Health had taken the complaint seriously, but we agreed with Mr C that it had not resolved his concerns adequately. This was because it had not provided a full and frank apology and explanation of what went wrong and it had not shown that it had learnt from the events Mr C complained about. This had caused Mr C further frustration and distress.

Putting it right

Malling Health wrote to Mr C to acknowledge the failings we identified, apologised, and explained how it would prevent similar issues from happening in future.