Complaints, feedback and compliments

At Opticall, we're committed to providing person-centred eye care and hearing care of a consistently high standard. We welcome all feedback, including complaints, and treat every complaint as a valuable opportunity to put things right and to improve our service.

We deal with complaints openly, fairly, promptly and without prejudice to the care you receive. No patient, resident, family member or care home will ever be treated less favourably as a result of making a complaint.

How to raise a concern or complaint

You can contact us in whichever way suits you best. You do not need to use a particular form or wording.

If you need help to make your complaint - for example because of a disability, sensory loss, or because English is not your first language - please tell us and we will make reasonable adjustments to support you. A family member, friend, advocate or care home staff member may also complain on your behalf with your consent.

Our commitments to you

When you raise a complaint with us, we will:

• Treat you with courtesy, respect and dignity at all times.
• Make it easy to complain, in whatever way suits you best.
• Acknowledge your complaint promptly and keep you informed of progress.
• Investigate thoroughly, fairly and proportionately.
• Give you a clear, honest response that addresses the points you raised.
• Apologise and put things right where we have got something wrong.
• Learn from your complaint and use it to improve our service.
• Keep your complaint confidential and separate from your clinical record, so it never affects your future care.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Because much of our care is delivered to older adults and care home residents, we know that complaints are often raised by relatives, carers or care home staff. A representative may complain on behalf of a patient or resident where that person has given consent, or where they are a child, have died, or lack the mental capacity to complain themselves.

To protect the privacy of the person concerned, we may need to confirm consent, or satisfy ourselves that the representative is acting in the person's best interests, before we share any personal or clinical information.

Time limit for making a complaint

A complaint should normally be made within 12 months of the event, or within 12 months of you becoming aware that you had cause to complain. We may still consider complaints made outside this period where there is good reason for the delay and where it is still possible to investigate the matter fairly.

What happens next

Stage 1 · Local resolution

Stage 2 · Independent review

If you are unhappy with our response, please tell us first, as we may be able to resolve any outstanding points. If we cannot, you can ask for an independent review. The route depends on the service your complaint concerns. You can complain to a provider or a commissioner, but not both about the same matter.

NHS-funded services

You can ask the commissioner of the service to review your complaint. NHS primary care services are commissioned through Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and the relevant ICB depends on the area where you received care. If you remain dissatisfied after local resolution, you can ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to consider your complaint.

Privately funded eye care and hearing care

You can contact the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS), a free and independent mediation service funded by the General Optical Council, which helps patients and practices resolve disputes about optical goods and services once our own complaints process has been used.

Concerns about professional conduct

Serious concerns about the conduct or fitness to practise of a registered optician, optometrist or dispensing optician can be raised with the General Optical Council (GOC). Concerns about the quality and safety of a CQC-regulated service can be raised with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC does not investigate individual complaints, but uses the information to inform its regulation of providers.

Confidentiality and your data

We handle all complaints in confidence and in line with our Data Protection Policy, the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Information about a complaint is kept separately from your clinical record. We only share personal information with those who need it to investigate and resolve the complaint, and with your consent where information about an identifiable person is involved.

Our duty of candour

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