Complaints Policy

If you are unhappy with any part of your visit to Numi Scan Gateshead, please tell us. Most concerns are resolved quickly and informally once we know about them, and we would much rather hear from you than not.

Raising a concern will never affect the care or service you receive from us, now or in the future.

If your concern relates to something that happened during your ultrasound examination, contacting us promptly helps us investigate properly while the details are fresh.

On the day. Speak to your sonographer or a member of the reception team before you leave. Many things can be sorted out there and then.

By phone. Call us on 0191 422 9570.

By email. Email info@gatesheadnumiscan.co.uk.

In writing. Write to us at Ground Floor, 203 High Street, Gateshead, NE8 1AS.

What to include

• Your name and contact details
• The date and time of your appointment
• What happened, in your own words
• What you would like us to do to put it right

You can ask someone to complain on your behalf. We will need your written consent before we can share any information about you with them.

Stage 1: our response

• We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days.
• We will look into what happened, speak to the people involved and review your records where relevant.
• We will send you a full written response within 20 working days.
• If we need longer, for example because someone involved is away, we will tell you why and keep you updated.

Stage 2: a further review

• If you are not satisfied with our response, write to us within 8 weeks and ask for a review.
• The review is carried out by the registered manager, who will look at the complaint and our handling of it afresh.
• You will receive a further written response within 20 working days.

We hope not to reach this point, but you have options that do not depend on us.

Care Quality Commission (CQC). We are registered with and inspected by the CQC. The CQC cannot investigate individual complaints or obtain an outcome for you, but it does want to hear about concerns because they inform how services are monitored and inspected. Call 03000 616161 or visit cqc.org.uk.

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). If your concern is about the conduct or competence of a registered sonographer, the HCPC handles fitness to practise concerns about the professionals on its register. Visit hcpc-uk.org.

Consumer advice. For concerns about the contract, payments or refunds, the Citizens Advice consumer service can advise you and pass reports to Trading Standards. Call 0808 223 1133 or visit citizensadvice.org.uk.

Please note that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman handles complaints about NHS care and does not cover privately funded treatment such as ours.

You retain the right to take legal action, and nothing in this policy affects your statutory rights.

Every complaint is recorded, along with what we did about it and what changed as a result.

We review complaints and their themes regularly as part of our clinical governance, so that a problem one family experiences becomes a change that benefits the next. Where a complaint identifies something we should do differently, we say so in our response to you.

Information you give us as part of a complaint is handled in accordance with UK data protection legislation and our Privacy Policy.

We share the details only with the people who need them to investigate and respond, and with anyone you have given us written consent to involve.