Due to the ongoing pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has recently indicated some flexibility in the NHS complaints procedure.

Under the Terms of Service, community pharmacy contractors must respond to complaints in accordance with the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints Regulations 2009. These were paused during the initial stages of the outbreak last year.

In response to the ongoing pandemic, DHSC has recently indicated that in some settings it may take longer to respond to a complaint and consider it permissible for this to go beyond the usually required six months. However, if contractors can respond to complaints normally, they should do so.

DHSC advises that relevant organisations, including contractors, should:

• Ensure that patients and the public are still able to raise concerns or make a complaint, but that the expectation of when an investigation and response are likely to be completed is managed in each case.
• Continue to acknowledge complaints within three working days as per the regulations and consider whether there are any immediate patient safety issues that should be addressed, and then managed as usual and recorded subject to recognition.
• Be especially mindful of complainants who were impacted by the pause which took effect between 1st April and 30th June 2020 (their complaint may have been received prior to 1st April 2020 or during the pause) and ensure their complaints are prioritised and not further impacted wherever possible.

This advice is effective from 1st February to 30th April 2021.