Responsibility for non-employees

Out-of-hours service providers should have their own complaints process, so any complaints should be referred to them

Out-of-hours (OOH) service providers should have their own complaints process, so any complaints should be referred to them. You should, however, co-operate with the OOH providers (subject to the patient’s consent) if they request information to help them with their investigation.

You might receive patient complaints about locum doctors. Although they are not strictly speaking your employees, your practice nevertheless has overall responsibility for administering complaints and achieving local resolution, and you will need their cooperation to achieve this.

As registered medical practitioners, they have a professional duty to co-operate with you and, in addition, remain personally responsible and accountable for their acts and omissions.