The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7251 p771
31 May 2003

Society summary

Society launches complaints procedure

As part of its customer service programme, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is to launch a formal complaints procedure on Monday 2 June to deal with issues concerning standards of service delivery, failure of processes or quality of staff performance.

The Society deals with more than 600 enquiries a day and the aim is to provide the best service in response. A caller who is unhappy with the service provided will first be asked to try to resolve the matter with the person or section (or the manager of that section) who provided the service or the response that is being questioned. This can be done by telephone or in writing.

Complainants who remain dissatisfied will be advised that they may make a formal complaint in writing, by letter, fax, or e-mail. Formal complaints should identify: the nature of the complaint; who has been involved so far; what has/has not been done; why the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome; and how the complainant would like to see the matter resolved.

Complaints should be sent to the

Complaints Office
Central Administration, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN

Tel 020 7572 2205
fax 020 7572 2501
e-mail complaints@rpsgb.org.uk

with contact details, including a daytime telephone number. Complainants who use e-mail should state whether a reply by e-mail is acceptable and, if not, provide a full postal address.

Some complaints are outside the scope of the formal procedure because they have separate internal procedures (see Panel below). If it is not clear where to send a complaint, it can be submitted to the Complaints Office, which will direct it to the right section.

All complaints received by the Society will be logged and acknowledged and a reply will be made within 10 working days, either with a full response or to advise when an answer can be expected.

Recipients who are not satisfied with the formal response can resubmit their complaint to the Society's Secretary and Registrar. Further details about this will be included in the formal reply.

Roy Allcorn, the Society's head of information, said: "The new complaints procedure is part of the Society's commitment to improve the quality of our services. It will allow us to put things right quickly when mistakes are made and to put in place safeguards to help prevent any recurrence."

Further information is available from the Complaints Office.