Complaints procedure

01Our approach

Oatley Medical Aesthetics is a single-practitioner clinic. A complaint comes straight to Hayley, and Hayley answers it herself. Nothing is passed to a call centre and nothing is dealt with by someone who was not there.

Raising a concern will not affect the care you receive, and you will not be treated differently for having raised it.

02If you have an urgent clinical concern

If you are unwell, in severe pain, or worried about a serious reaction, do not wait to complain — get help first. Contact the clinic on the number below. If you cannot reach us and you are concerned about your health, contact NHS 111, your GP or, in an emergency, call 999.

Please also tell us as soon as you can afterwards, so that what happened can be recorded and reviewed properly.

03Raising a concern informally

Most things are resolved quickly by talking. Call or message the clinic, explain what has happened, and we will arrange to see you or speak to you properly. There is no charge for a review appointment arising from a concern about a treatment we carried out.

04Making a formal complaint

If you would rather put it in writing, or you are not satisfied after speaking to us, send a written complaint by email using the details at the end of this page.

Please include:

• your name and how best to contact you;
• the date and clinic of the treatment or appointment;
• what happened, in your own words;
• anything you have noticed since, including photographs if you have them;
• what you would like us to do about it.

Please raise a complaint within 12 months of the treatment where you can. We will still look at later complaints, but it becomes harder to establish what happened.

What happens next

1. We acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days.
2. We review your treatment record, our notes and any photographs, and we may ask to see you.
3. We give you a full written response within 20 working days. If it will take longer — for example if a clinical opinion is needed — we will tell you why and when to expect it.
4. Our response explains what we found, whether anything went wrong, and what we are putting right.

05If you are still not satisfied

Tell us, and we will look at it again. Where your complaint concerns Hayley’s professional practice, you can also raise it with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

We will give you the current contact details for the NMC on request, and nothing here affects your right to take independent legal advice.

06Complaints about your information

If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal or health information, our privacy notice explains the process and your right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

07What we do with complaints

Every complaint is recorded, along with what was done about it. They are reviewed so that the same problem does not happen twice. Complaint records are kept separately from your treatment record and handled under our privacy notice.