Compliments, comments & complaints

If you’ve had a positive experience with us, we appreciate hearing from you. We love sharing positive feedback with our teams and patients.

We also recognise that there are times when things go wrong. When this happens, we want to respond to complaints swiftly and, where we can, try to put things right.

We value your feedback, so when patients and visitors offer criticism – or praise – we listen carefully.

Whatever you want to say, your opinions and comments are important to us – good or bad.

Fill out our feedback form regarding your experience at KIMS Hospital in Maidstone, Kent, or at our Sevenoaks Medical Centre in Sevenoaks, Kent.

 

Alternatively you can write to us at Quality & Governance Team, KIMS Hospital, Newnham Court Way, Weavering, Kent, UK ME14 5FT.

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Complaints Policy

Getting back to you

If you have requested a response, acknowledgements will be sent within 3 working days of receiving the complaint. We will then reply in full as promptly as we can, usually within 20 working days.

Our Chief Nurse is responsible for the day-to-day running of our hospital and is in the best position to delegate and coordinate the investigation thoroughly and promptly.

If the investigation is still ongoing after 20 days we will write to explain the delay. In very complex cases, which may take more time, we will send you regular progress reports. We may suggest meeting you to talk through your issues and attempt to resolve them.

A copy of KIMS Hospital’s full complaints policy is available on request from our Chief Nurse, or email complaints@kims.org.uk with your request.

An appeal to our Chief Executive Officer

If you are not happy with the response from our Chief Nurse, you can take your complaint to our Chief Executive Officer. Our Chief Executive will review your complaint and either confirm the decisions and actions taken by our Chief Nurse, or reach an alternative decision to help resolve the matter.

An independent review

Private patients
If you remain unhappy with our response, private patients have the right to take their complaint to independent external adjudication. The process is run by the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS) who only become involved once you have been through KIMS Hospital’s complaints procedure. If we have been unable to resolve your complaint, this process will be fully explained in a letter from the Chief Executive Officer.

Website: www.iscas.org.uk

Email: info@iscas.org.uk

Telephone: 020 7536 6091

 

NHS Patients
The appeal process for NHS-funded patients is different – in line with the NHS complaints procedure you can take your complaint to the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). Whilst the NHS prefer local resolution in the first instance, patients have the right to contact the Ombudsman at any point within 1 year of the incident. Following the review by the Ombudsman there is no right of appeal. However, you may be able to seek a judicial review, a procedure which allows a court of law to review decisions made by public bodies.

Website: ombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0345 015 4033

 

Care Quality Commission
You may also wish to share your experience with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Although they cannot look into complaints about healthcare or social care services, they would still like to hear from you if you are not happy about the care you receive. This is because they can use this information when they are looking into individual services in England to make sure that they are meeting important standards of quality and safety.

Website: www.cqc.org.uk

Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk

Telephone: 03000 616 161

Post: CQC National Customer Service Centre,
Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA