Complaints Policy

Date of release: July 2021
Version: 1.0

Contents

1. Policy Statement
2. How do I give feedback?
3. What information do you need?
4. What if my complaint relates to out of hours service?
5. What if my complaint refers to the credit facility?
6. What will you do when you receive my complaint?
7. What if I am unhappy with the outcome?
8. General feedback

Policy Statement

Our aim is to provide you and your pet with the best possible service and care and in line with our professional code of conduct; to pursue our work with integrity respecting our responsibilities to the public, our clients and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. First and foremost we endeavour to ensure the health and welfare of animals entrusted to our care. We recognise and respect the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative Principle 6.

We encourage feedback regarding all our services and constantly strive to make effective improvement where and when opportunities arise. The sooner we are made aware the sooner we can address the feedback and encourage prompt contact even if this is during current treatment.

IVC Evidensia believes in local leadership and management, we therefore recognise the local teams (your practice) are best equipped to manage feedback. In the first instance all complaints should be addressed to the local teams.

How do I give feedback?

You can use one of the below methods to contact us:

1. Tell us in person – In the first instance we would encourage you to tell the person in charge of your pet’s care; they may be able to resolve your concern there and then. If they are unavailable, please discuss your concerns with any member of our local team who will only be too happy to help. We would much rather talk to you about it now
2. Email us at the Practice email address detailed on the Practice web page
3. Telephone us on the contact number given on the Practice web page
4. Write to us at the Practice
5. Social media - we provide contact details on each Practice web page and welcome feedback, we would encourage respectful and appropriate use of this communication media and do not consider this to be an appropriate arena for complaint management

What information do you need?

When making a complaint, please provide the following information:

• Your name, address and preferred and convenient contact telephone and email
• The name of your pet
• The date on which you last attended the clinic
• The Practice name and if appropriate the branch visited
• A brief description of your concerns
• A summary of what in your opinion we can do to best deal with your concerns

In general, if you have a concern, it is best to raise it as soon as possible – this will make it easier for us to investigate and resolve any matters, which are still ongoing.

If any of our colleagues were involved, it would be helpful if you can provide us with their names.

What if my complaint relates to out of hours service?

In the event your complaint is relating to an Out of Hours service or a Referral treatment that was not provided by our colleagues we would ask you to firstly direct the complaint to the relevant service provider. If you are not sure whether or not this was the case please ask any of our practice colleagues and we can quickly clarify to whom the complaint should be directed. We would also appreciate it if you could keep us updated on the outcome.

What if my complaint refers to the credit facility?

If your complaint is related to the provision of interest free credit please approach the providers - Care Free Credit - directly. Contact details are available on their website www.carefreecredit.co.uk. If it has taken Care Free Credit more than 8 weeks to resolve your complaint, or you aren’t satisfied with their decision, then you are entitled to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is a free service that resolves disputes between customers and financial services institutions. Please be aware that you’ll need to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of Care Free Credit’s final response letter.

You can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service by:

Phone: 0800 0 234 567

Web: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

What will you do when you receive my complaint?

We will treat any point you raise in confidentiality. Upon receiving your correspondence, we will acknowledge receipt as soon as practically possible and within 7 working days and may contact you to find out more. Please let us know the most convenient time to contact you. We may need to investigate the matter further before being able to reach a conclusion; if that is the case we will do our best to look into it as quickly as possible and will reply to you as soon as we are able. In normal circumstances, we would aim to have addressed your complaint within 14 working days of receiving it or provided an explanation for the delay in meeting this objective.

What if I am unhappy with the outcome?

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of this process, you may then raise your concern with our central team by emailing complaints@independentvetcare.co.uk. Your email will be escalated to the appropriate individual within the company. Our central team aim to address escalated complaints as quickly as possible. We endeavour to address all escalated complaints within 28 days of receipt or have provided an explanation and update if this timeline cannot be met.

Alternatively you may contact appropriate external bodies such as the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (www.vetmediation.co.uk) or the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (https://www.rcvs.org.uk/home/).

General feedback

If you have any general comments please:

Email the practice email address (usually found in our contact page on the website). Alternatively write to the Practice either via post or hand in to reception.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your thoughts.