Complain to the organisation you're unhappy with first
We’re the final step for unresolved complaints. This means you’ll usually need to complain to the organisation you’re unhappy with first and receive a final response. This gives it the chance to look into your concerns and put things right.
If your complaint is about a hospital, a good place to start is contacting its Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) or complaints department.
You can find out more about feedback and complaints on the NHS England website.
Get support to complain if you need to
If you need help complaining to the organisation you’re unhappy with, we have advice and resources to support with your NHS complaint. You can also get support from an advocate.
Complain within the time limits
Once you have a final response from the organisation you’re unhappy with, contact us as soon as you can. There are legal time limits for bringing a complaint to us.
You need to complain to us within 12 months of when you became aware of the problem.
If your complaint is outside the time limit, we’re not usually able to investigate it. But there is some flexibility and in some circumstances we may still be able to help. For example, if the organisation you’re unhappy with has taken a long time to look at your complaint, meaning it comes to us outside the time limit.
If you could not complain to us in time, we’ll talk to you to understand why. We’ll look at how much time has passed and whether we can still investigate.
If the organisation has not replied to your complaint when it said it would, or you’re running out of time, call us on 0345 015 4033. We’ll see how we can help.