Flora House Medical professionals

Complaints and feedback

This page sets out our complaints policy, FH-GOV-07. Last updated: 25 September 2026.

If something about Flora House has gone wrong, tell us. We would rather hear it from you than not hear it at all — a complaint is how we find out what is not working, and dealing with it properly is part of how we are judged as a regulated service.

In brief

What you can tell us about

Anything to do with the service: a consultation, a prescribing decision, how somebody spoke to you, how long you waited, fees and refunds, how your information was handled, this website, or the dispensing and delivery of a Flora House prescription by our partner pharmacy. If your complaint involves the pharmacy as well as us, we investigate it jointly and send you one answer — we will not pass you back and forth.

You do not have to use the word “complaint”, and you do not have to be a patient. If you would rather raise something informally and have it sorted out there and then, say so — we record it, but it does not have to become a formal complaint unless you want it to.

Compliments and general feedback are welcome through the same form. They are read by the same people and reported to our governance committee alongside everything else.

How to reach us

Please raise things with us within 12 months of what happened, or of finding out about it. We will still look at something older where it is possible to investigate it fairly.

What happens after you send it

First, we look into it ourselves

Our Registered Manager logs your complaint and writes to you within three working days, confirming what we understand the complaint to be, what outcome you have asked for, who is investigating and how long we expect it to take.

The investigation looks at your records, the correspondence, the prescription and pharmacy records, and statements from the staff involved. Anything clinical is reviewed by a clinician who was not involved in your care, and where a prescribing decision is in question, by a specialist in the relevant field. We will offer you a telephone or video conversation about it if you would like one.

Within 20 working days you get a written answer that goes through each point you raised, says what we found, says plainly where something went wrong and apologises for it, explains what we are changing, and deals with any refund or other remedy. If the investigation genuinely cannot be finished in that time we tell you why and give you a new date; it should not go beyond 40 working days.

If you are not satisfied, ask for a review

You can ask, within six months of our answer, for the case to be reviewed by our Nominated Individual — or by another director or senior clinician where the Nominated Individual was involved in the matter. They look at whether the investigation was thorough enough, whether the findings were reasonable and whether we actually answered you, and they can commission further enquiry including an outside clinical opinion. You get their answer in writing within 20 working days.

Our written answers tell you what independent route is open to you after that, so you are never left without a next step.

Complaining on someone else's behalf

You can complain for a patient, and a patient can ask a friend, a relative or an advocate to do it for them. There is one limit on it, and it protects the patient: we cannot discuss anyone's care without their written consent. Until we have that we will not confirm or deny that a person is a patient here, and we will not share anything about their treatment — a cannabis prescription is exactly the kind of fact somebody may not have chosen to tell their family. We will tell you what we need and help you get it.

Where a patient has died or cannot make decisions for themselves, we will explain what authority we need to see.

If you need help to complain

Nobody should be unable to complain because of how the complaint has to be made.

Other places you can take it

Using any of these does not stop us dealing with your complaint, and you do not need our permission or our answer first.

We do not use confidentiality clauses or settlement terms to stop anyone raising a concern with the CQC, the GMC or any other regulator, and we never will.

Tell us what happened

Everything except your name, your email address and what happened is optional. If you would rather not use a form, the email address and postal address above reach exactly the same person.

What are you telling us?

This is where we send your acknowledgement and our answer.

Only if you would rather we could call you as well.

Only if you are writing on somebody else's behalf. We will come back to you about their consent before we discuss their care.

In your own words, and in as much or as little detail as you like. Dates, and the names of anyone you spoke to, help us look into it — but write it however is easiest and we will come back to you if we need more.

An explanation, an apology, something put right, a refund, a change to how we do things — it helps to know what you are asking for.

Large print or easy read, an interpreter, a time of day that suits you, or anyone you would rather we did not contact.

Your complaint is not added to your clinical record, and it is not shown to anyone who does not need it to investigate and answer you. We keep the record for 10 years, which is what the rules for complaints records require — so unlike our mailing list, this is not something we can delete on request. Section 2 of our Privacy Policy sets out the detail.

Why we keep it, and for how long

What you write here will often say something about your health, and that makes it what the law calls special category data. We handle it because a regulated healthcare provider is required to investigate and answer complaints, and because doing that is part of providing your care — not because you have given us marketing consent. Practically, that means two things worth being straight about: only the people investigating and answering see it, and we cannot simply delete it if you ask us to, because the record of a complaint and what we did about it has to be kept for 10 years.

Nothing you type into this form goes to Google, to our analytics provider, or to any advertiser. This page does not carry our advertising tag at all.