COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Your guide to making a complaint

Our Complaints Policy

Air Ambulance Northern Ireland is the local charity that provides the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for Northern Ireland, together with our partners at the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS). The service brings urgent medical assistance to anywhere in the province, operating seven days a week for 12 hours per day. It can get to anywhere in Northern Ireland in approximately twenty-five minutes.

At the heart of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland is the desire to save lives and reduce long-term disability to the most seriously ill and injured patients. HEMS is a service that any one of us might need at any time.

We aim to provide you with the best possible service, but occasionally things may not be to your satisfaction, and we will encourage you to tell us about it so that we can put matters right.

We take complaints very seriously, so if you are not happy with our Charity we want to:

  • make it easy for you to raise your complaint
  • listen to your complaint
  • consider how you would like us to resolve your complaint
  • make sure you are satisfied with how your complaint was handled

This document explains what to do if you have a complaint about our Charity.

It also tells you how quickly we will deal with your complaint and who to contact if you are not satisfied with our initial response.

We are here to help you and to resolve your problem.

If you are not satisfied with any aspect of our Charity these possible alternatives are open to you.

Step 1

We ask that you call us and speak with our Executive team on 02892622677.  We hope that we can settle complaints fairly and as quickly as possible in this way.

If you prefer you may put your complaint in writing, either to the address below or by email to complaints@airambulanceni.org

Step 2

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you may take this further by writing to the Charity Administrator, who will look into your complaint and help you reach a satisfactory conclusion.

The address to write to is:
Executive Team
Air Ambulance Northern Ireland
94 Halftown Road
Lisburn
BT27 5RF

Please remember to tell us:

  • What happened
  • When it happened
  • Who dealt with you
  • What you would like us to do to put things right

Please do this within 28 days of receiving our response to your initial complaint.

Step 3

Our primary aim will be one of resolution to your satisfaction but if, having gone through the first two steps, you feel your complaint has not been resolved, you can write to our Charity Chairperson, who will carry out an independent review. The address to write to is:

Charity Chairperson
Air Ambulance Northern Ireland
94 Halftown Road
Lisburn
BT27 5RF

How long will it take and when you will hear from us?

Immediately

Our aim is to resolve your complaint straight away.

4 working days

If we have been unable to resolve your complaint within 4 working days after we received it, we will write to or phone you to:

  • acknowledge receipt of your complaint.
  • tell you how you can contact the person who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect a reply.

14 working days

In the majority of cases we will be able to resolve your complaint within 14 working days of receiving it.

If we cannot give a full reply in this time, we will contact you again to update you with our progress and tell you how much longer we anticipate it will take.

28 working days

In exceptional circumstances, where your complaint is particularly complex, matters may take up to 28 working days to resolve. If we have not been able to resolve your complaint within 28 working days we will contact you again to update you with our progress and requesting more time to send you a “Final Response” which will clearly set out our position with regard to your complaint.

Your personal information

If you use our complaints procedure, you are agreeing that we can use any personal information you send us for purposes connected with your complaint. We may also give your personal information to other people and organisations if we have to do so by law or if you have given us permission.

Equal opportunities

We are committed to equal opportunities and take complaints seriously. We will try to resolve your complaint by listening to you to understand what has gone wrong. We may use complaints to review our policies and procedures to make sure we treat everyone fairly.

We welcome comments and suggestions as these can help us improve our standards.

Air Ambulance NI aims to fully resolve your complaint, if, however, you are still not content with the response received from us and would wish to have it further investigated, advice on how this may happen can be found here:

Charity Commission for Northern Ireland at https://www.charitycommissionni.org.uk

The Fundraising Regulator www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk

Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.org.uk