Explaining the Complaints Process for Nursing Homes

If you are unhappy with the care or treatment you have received, you have the right to make a complaint, have the complaint investigated and receive a written response.

By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing with complaints. The provider of the service is responsible for investigating your concern. You can ask for a copy of the complaints process.

Firstly, you can raise the issue with the Nursing Home by phone or in person. The issue might be resolved without the need to make a formal, written complaint.

However, if you are unhappy with the response you receive after raising the issue, you can make a formal complaint.

Feedback may be a suggestion on how to improve a service, and may not require a formal outcome or investigation.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction which needs a response. It is usually made when a person is unhappy with the experience they have had and want to receive a response from the Nursing Home to address the complaint.

Both complaints and feedback are made through the individual complaints process of each Nursing Home.

The complaints process for Nursing Homes can involve four stages:

Stage 1: Making an Informal Complaint – A complaint can be made verbally and resolved locally and quickly. The issue might be resolved without the need to make a formal, written complaint.

Stage 2: Making a Formal Complaint – If you are unhappy with the response received to your informal complaint, you can make a formal written complaint.

Stage 3: Internal Review –  If you are unhappy with the decision received following investigation of a formal complaint, you can request an internal review by the Nursing Home.

Stage 4 External Review – You can send your complaint for external review if you are unhappy with how your complaint has been handled following Stage 2 and Stage 3. This means an appropriate external organisation, such as the Ombudsman or the Medical Council, may review the complaint.

Each stage is outlined in greater detail below.

There are some complaints which may be suitable for quick management and resolution at the point of contact in the nursing home. You can make an informal complaint locally and the person receiving the complaint will acknowledge the complaint, seek to resolve the issue, or pass it on to the relevant person to follow up where necessary.

Complaints that cannot be resolved informally may need to be referred to the nursing home’s nominated Complaints Officer for investigation and action where appropriate. More serious and complex issues may move immediately to formal complaint. As a service user, if you are not happy with the outcome of your informal complaint, you can request a formal investigation of your complaint.

A nominated complaints officer for the nursing home will be appointed to investigate your complaint.

Following a full investigation about the complaint, the complaints officer will either uphold the complaint or not, and present the reasons for that decision, any improvements recommended and any details of the review process in a written response.

Timeframe: On conclusion of the investigation, a written response must be provided by the nursing home as soon as possible and in any case no later than 30 working days after receipt of the complaint.

In the event that the 30 working day timeframe cannot be complied with, you must be provided with a written response informing you when you will receive a response and the reason for the delay.

If you are not happy with the decision of the formal complaint investigation, you have the option of requesting a review by the nursing home.

A Review Officer, not involved in the investigation of the complaint, is appointed and will look to review the process, findings and recommendations of the original complaints officer’s report.

Timeframe: The review officer will present the findings of the review in a written response, as soon as possible and in any case no later than 20 days after receipt of a review request. 

In the event that the 20 working day timeframe cannot be complied with, you must be provided with a written response informing you when you will receive a response and the reason for the delay.

NOTE: You do not have to avail of an Internal Review. You may decide to escalate directly to External Review. 

You may decide to refer you complaint for External Review, for example, to the Ombudsman or other professional or regulatory bodies. The Ombudsman can examine complaints against most organisations that deliver public services, including publicly-funded health and social care services and private nursing homes. Before you contact the Ombudsman, it recommends that you should first try to resolve your complaint with the relevant service provider.

No, you do not need to go through all 4 stages.

You could first make an informal complaint to your point of contact in the Nursing Home. However, if you have a serious or complex complaint, you can skip the informal complaint and move directly to a formal complaint.

If you are unhappy with the response you receive after you have made a Formal Complaint, you can request that the Nursing Home undertake an Internal Review or you can decide to refer the matter for External Review.

The view of the Ombudsman is final and cannot be appealed. Therefore, it may be advisable that you exhaust the complaints process internally first, before going externally.

If you are not happy with the response to your informal complaint at the point of contact, you can ask for your complaint to be investigated formally.

If you are not happy with the decision of the nominated Complaints officer at Formal complaint, you can either request an Internal Review of the decision or you can opt to move directly to an External Review by an organisation such as the Ombudsman, or other regulatory bodies. The decision of the Ombudsman is final and there is no appeal at this stage.

See FAQs on an Independent Review.