Complaints procedure
When something isn’t right, here’s how to tell us — and what we’ll do.
A clear, public complaints procedure is required by the GPhC and is good practice for any pharmacy. This is ours. Complaining will never affect your care.
Our commitment
We are committed to providing safe, effective and respectful pharmacy care. When we get it wrong — or when you simply feel something isn’t right — we want to hear about it. Complaining helps us put things right for you and helps us learn so the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.
This procedure meets our obligation under Standard 1 of the GPhC’s Standards for registered pharmacies to operate a clear complaints procedure that is publicly available.
Complaining will never affect your care. You will not be treated less favourably, refused service or charged because you have complained, and your prescriber will not be told the identity of a complainant if you would prefer they were not.
What you can complain about
You can complain about anything to do with Switch — including, but not limited to:
- The medicine you were supplied (or not supplied).
- The behaviour or judgement of a pharmacist, prescriber or member of pharmacy staff.
- The way our website or consultation flow works.
- How long something took.
- How you were spoken to in writing, on the phone, or by chat.
- How your personal information has been handled (see also section 8).
- An accessibility issue (see also our accessibility statement).
You can complain on your own behalf, on behalf of someone else with their consent, or on behalf of a person who has died (with appropriate evidence of your relationship).
How to complain
You can complain in any of the ways below. We try to make this as easy as possible — there is no special form to fill in.
- hello@switchpharmacy.co.uk with “Complaint” in the subject line.
- Phone
- 0116 296 9900, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00. Calls are not recorded by default; tell us if you would like us to start a recording.
- Post
- Complaints, Switch Pharmacy, 1 Stadium Place, Leicester LE4 0JS.
- In person
- By appointment at our pharmacy at 1 Stadium Place, Leicester LE4 0JS.
What to tell us
The more you can tell us the faster we can help. Where possible please include: your name; a way to contact you; the date you ordered (or your order reference if you have it); what happened; what you would like us to do; and whether you have already spoken to anyone here about it. If you are complaining on someone else’s behalf, please tell us your relationship to them and how they have consented.
What we will do
- Within 2 working days
- We acknowledge your complaint, confirm we have understood it, and tell you who is investigating.
- Within 10 working days
- We give you a substantive written response that explains what we found, what we will do, and what we have learned. If we need more time — for example because we need to speak to a third-party prescriber — we will tell you why and when to expect the response.
- Within 20 working days
- We will close out all complaints, except in genuinely exceptional cases.
- Patient safety incidents
- If we identify a patient-safety risk, we deal with that as the immediate priority — including notifying the regulator and other patients if required — before completing the complaint response.
The Superintendent Pharmacist, Omar Farook Dagia (GPhC 2221199), oversees every complaint and signs off the final response. Where a complaint relates to the Superintendent personally, a senior pharmacist independent of the Superintendent will handle it.
If you are not satisfied
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can ask for a review by writing to the Superintendent Pharmacist directly at the postal address above, clearly marked “For the Superintendent — complaint review”. We will respond within 20 working days.
You do not have to come back to us before going to an external body — you can go straight to the GPhC, the relevant NHS route, or the ICO at any time. The next sections explain when each is the right place.
The GPhC
The General Pharmaceutical Council is the statutory regulator for pharmacies in Great Britain. Concerns about the safety of a pharmacy, the conduct of a pharmacist, or the fitness to practise of an individual should go to them.
General Pharmaceutical Council
25 Canada Square, London E14 5LQ
020 3713 8000 · concerns@pharmacyregulation.org
pharmacyregulation.org/raising-concerns
NHS & ombudsman routes
Switch is a private pharmacy service. We do not provide NHS pharmacy services, so the NHS complaints route does not apply to most of what we do. If your complaint is about an NHS-funded element of your care (for example, an interaction between us and your NHS GP), you can also use the NHS route:
- In England: nhs.uk · how to complain; ultimate escalation to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (ombudsman.org.uk, 0345 015 4033).
- In Wales: the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (ombudsman.wales).
- In Scotland: the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (spso.org.uk).
- In Northern Ireland: the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (nipso.org.uk).
Data complaints (ICO)
For anything specifically about how Switch has handled your personal information, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113 · ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
See also our privacy notice.
What we learn from complaints
Every complaint is logged on a confidential complaints register held by the Superintendent. We review the register quarterly, look for patterns (for example, several complaints about the same medicine, the same prescriber or the same step in the consultation), and change our processes where we need to. Any change that has a patient-safety implication is also reflected in our standard operating procedures and discussed at our next team meeting.
Anonymised summaries of significant lessons are available to the GPhC on request as part of routine inspection.
Contact
Complaints · Switch Pharmacy
1 Stadium Place, Leicester LE4 0JS
hello@switchpharmacy.co.uk · 0116 296 9900