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Complaints Procedure | PatientsCann UK®
Please read first This procedure is for concerns about PatientsCann UK® itself, including our team, our volunteers, our services and how we have treated you. We are not a regulator and we cannot investigate a clinic, a pharmacy or a product on your behalf. For those, see Reporting products and services.

Our promise

Five working days
We will let you know we have your complaint and who is looking at it.
Twenty working days
We will send you a full written reply. If we need longer, we will tell you why.
One appeal
If our reply does not settle it, the Directors will review the whole case.
No comeback
Complaining will never affect the support or guidance you get from us.

Scope

What we can look at

We can look into

  • The way a member of our team or a volunteer has treated you.
  • Something we said or published that was wrong, unclear or unfair.
  • Support, advocacy or events we did not deliver as promised.
  • Being left without a reply, or waiting far too long for one.
  • How we have handled your personal information.

We cannot look into

  • Clinical decisions made by a doctor, clinic or pharmacy.
  • The quality, supply or price of a prescribed product.
  • Complaints about another patient group, a sponsor or a third party.
  • Matters already with a court, tribunal or the police.
  • Something that happened more than twelve months ago, unless there is a good reason we could not have known sooner.

Not sure it counts as a complaint? Send it anyway. If it is not for us, we will say so plainly and point you to the body that can help.

Getting started

How to complain

Two ways to reach us

You can email info@patientscann.org.uk with the word Complaint in the subject line, or fill in the form further down this page. Both arrive with the same person.

If writing is hard for you, ask a friend, a family member or an advocate to write on your behalf. Tell us who they are and that you are happy for them to act for you.

What to tell us

  • What happened, and roughly when.
  • Who was involved, if you know.
  • What went wrong for you as a result.
  • What you would like us to do to put it right.

You do not need formal language or legal terms. Plain words are fine, and short is fine too.

Complaining without giving your name

You can complain anonymously. We will still record it and look into it as far as we can. The limit is a practical one: we cannot ask you for more detail, and we cannot send you the outcome. If you want a reply, we need a way to contact you.

Step by step

What happens next

We acknowledge it within five working days
You will get a short note confirming we have your complaint, what we understand it to be about, and the name of the person handling it.
The Complaints Lead looks into it
They read what you have sent, speak to anyone involved, and check our records. Nobody investigates a complaint about their own conduct.
We may come back with questions
If something is unclear, we will ask. You can answer in whatever way suits you best.
You get a full reply within twenty working days
In writing, and in plain English. It will say what we found, whether we uphold your complaint, and what we are doing about it. If we need more time, we will tell you before the twenty days are up and give you a new date.
We put it right and we learn from it
Where we were wrong, we will say sorry and change what needs changing. Every complaint is logged, and the Directors review the log so the same fault does not happen twice.

Escalation

If you are still unhappy

Ask the Directors to review it
Reply to our letter within twenty working days and say you want an appeal, and why. A Director who has not been involved will review the whole case and write to you within twenty working days. That decision is our final word.
Take a data complaint to the ICO
If your complaint is about how we have used your personal information, you can go to the Information Commissioner's Office at any point, whether or not you come to us first.
Go to the right regulator
If your concern is really about a clinic, a pharmacy, a doctor or a medicine, the regulators listed on our reporting page can take it further than we can.

Safeguarding

Serious harm and safeguarding

Some concerns are too serious to sit in a complaints queue. If your complaint tells us that a child or an adult at risk may have been harmed, or may be in danger now, we treat it as a safeguarding matter straight away rather than waiting for the normal timescales.

In those cases the Complaints Lead tells a Director the same day, and we may have to pass information to the police, to a local authority safeguarding team or to another body that can act. We will tell you if we have to do that, unless telling you would put someone at greater risk.

If someone is in immediate danger, please call 999. We are a small team and we cannot monitor messages day and night.

Confidentiality has one other limit. We will normally keep your complaint between the people who need to see it, but we may have to share it where the law requires us to, or where someone's safety depends on it.

Records and data

Your information, and how we behave

What we record

  • Your complaint, our reply, and the dates in between.
  • Any notes made while looking into it.
  • What we changed as a result.

We keep complaint records for three years, then delete them. You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, or ask us to correct it.

How we expect to treat each other

  • We will be polite, honest and clear with you, even when we disagree.
  • We ask for the same in return. Abuse, threats or discriminatory language towards our team or volunteers are not acceptable.
  • Where a complaint becomes abusive, or the same points are sent to us again and again after a final decision, we may limit contact to one written channel and say so in writing.
  • We will still finish looking into the substance of the complaint.

Complaint form

Tell us what went wrong

Please do not send bank details, prescription documents or photographs of medication through this form. If we need anything like that, we will ask for it securely.

Would you rather just email us?

One address, read by the Complaints Lead. Put Complaint in the subject line and we will take it from there.

info@patientscann.org.uk Complaining about a clinic or product
You do not have to be in crisis to reach out

Samaritans are there day and night on 116 123, free to call. If you would rather not speak to anyone, you can text SHOUT to 85258, free and at any hour. If you are worried about your mental health and your prescription, your clinic or your GP can review it with you. Reaching out for support is never a reason to feel ashamed.

References

References follow the Harvard style. List sources with no confirmed author by their repository reference.

  1. Information Commissioner's Office (2026) Make a complaint. Available at: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint (Accessed: 17 September 2026).
  2. Information Commissioner's Office (2026) Data protection register entry ZB345466: PatientsCann UK. Available at: ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZB345466 (Accessed: 17 September 2026).
  3. Companies House (2026) PatientsCann UK, company number 14211389. Available at: find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14211389 (Accessed: 17 September 2026).