A MEDICAL practice in the Borders used ‘overly defensive’ language while handling a complaint, an appeals process has found.

A complaint made about the health hub – described as in the ‘Borders NHS area’ – was upheld by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

In its decision report published recently, the ombudsman said the practice should apologise to ‘C’ for failing to respond to their complaint reasonably.

An SPSO spokesperson said: “C complained that the practice failed to reasonably respond to their complaint. C had made a complaint to the practice about communication and the service provided by them, particularly in relation to their appointment services, phone lines, and frontline staff. C was concerned by the content and tone of the practice’s complaint response.

“We found that the practice’s handling of C’s complaint was unreasonable, including the tone and language of their response and a failure to signpost to the SPSO.

“We considered some of the language used in their response came across as overly defensive and failed to maintain an appropriately conciliatory tone.

“The practice also failed to have an appropriate two-stage complaint procedure in place that follows the NHS Scotland model complaints handling procedure, as they were unaware this applied to them. Therefore, we upheld C’s complaint.”

An NHS Borders spokesperson said that the health board would not provide a comment as GP practices handle their own complaints.