NHS rules and regulations insist that every general practice has a complaints procedure. Each practice is allowed to decide on its own way of handling complaints but these will always have to be approved by the Local Health Authority.

As a first step you have several options:

• you can go to your GPs surgery and say you wish to make a complaint. They will then explain their complaints procedure to you. This will usually involve meeting with and talking to someone within the practice (who may be a manager or a nurse, rather than a doctor) and they may or may not ask the doctor who you are unhappy with to be present at that meeting (depending on their local arrangements).
• if you do not want to go to your own GPs surgery then you can complain to the local Community Health Council. Their address is in the telephone book. There is a reorganisation taking place over the next few months to replace Community Health Councils with Patient Advisory and Liaison Services (which will be known as PALS). There will be PALS to cover every general practice and every hospital Trust by the end of 2002.
• as an alternative you can phone NHS Direct on 0845 4647 who will tell you how to complain and put you in touch with someone who can help make your complaint if you need them. Very often speaking to someone who is involved in your care (like another doctor, a nurse or a manager) about your concerns and anxieties, can help sort things out and deal with your worries without going through a formal complaints process.