Links Medical Centre 4 Hermitage Place, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 8BW | Tel: 0131 554 1036

Suggestions or Complaints

We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice and are always happy to receive suggestions to help us improve the service we offer. We are, however, aware that things can go wrong, resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause of complaint. If this were so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly and amicably as possible.

If you can, first talk to a member of staff involved in your care. If you do this, we can try to sort out your complaint on the spot.

If you are unable to talk to the NHS staff involved in your care, you can ask to speak to Jackie Henderson who is the Practice Manager or you can speak to a member of the NHS Lothian Patient Experience Team. The NHS Lothian Patient Experience Team contact number is: Telephone: 0131 536 3370. Email: [email protected]



You can complain in person, by phone, or in writing. When complaining, you should give:

  • Your full name and address (and the patients’ name and address if you are complaining for them please be aware that if you are providing information on behalf of someone else we will need to obtain their consent so that we can act on this information).
  • As much helpful information as possible about what happened, where it happened, and when.

Written complaints can be sent either to Jackie Henderson, Practice Manager at Links Medical Centre, 4 Hermitage Place, Leith EH6 8BW or can be directed to the NHS Lothian Patient Experience Team Freepost RSTR-RLJH-YLTR NHS Lothian, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG.

We will keep information about you confidential. To investigate your complaint, we may have to talk to other NHS staff about you or show them your health records. If you dont want us to share information from your health records, you should tell us when you make your complaint, but bear in mind this may make it more difficult to look into your complaint. We will make a record of your details and complaint, and use it to help us make services better.


We will write to you with a full response within 20 working days of receiving your complaint. In some cases, we may need more time to give you a full response and wont be able to keep to these timescales. If this happens, we will let you know and tell you why.

In our response, we will let you know the result of our investigation.
We will:

  • Show that we have looked into your complaint and reply to all the points you make.
  • Offer you an apology if things have gone wrong.
  • Explain what we will do to stop what you complained about from happening again.
  • If necessary, explain why we cannot do anything more about some parts of your complaint
  • Offer you the chance to talk to a member of staff if there is anything in the letter you don’t understand.
  • Include information about the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman in case you are unhappy with our response or the way we have handled your complaint and want to take things further.