NHS Dorset does not provide clinical care and ordinarily does not have access to patient or other clinical records not held by our organisation. This means we are not able to answer any questions about individual patient care or process letters from secondary care professionals addressed to GPs.
Patients or secondary care professionals should contact the registered GP practice directly. Private providers who don’t hold contact details for the patient’s registered NHS GP should use ‘Find a GP’ tool to locate the appropriate contact details.
It’s important to note that we cannot process prescription or repeat prescription requests, make or manage medical appointments or process dental registration requests. Patients should use the NHS app or contact their GP or dental practice directly.
General enquiries
If you have a general query about NHS Dorset, you can contact the team by email.
Please do not include any personal identifiable information in your email, such as your date of birth, NHS number or confidential patient information. If we need additional information to help us deal with your enquiry we will email you.
We may pass your information to other teams working for NHS Dorset if it they are best placed to answer your query.
Email: customer.careteam@nhsdorset.nhs.uk
Please be advised that emails are monitored 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday only.
Telephone: 08000 851067
Please be advised this is an answerphone service. Do not leave any personal identifiable information in your message, such as your date of birth, NHS number or confidential patient information.
Messages are monitored 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday only.
Privacy statement
If you contact with us in regarding a GP, dental, ophthalmology or pharmacy practice your concern/complaint will be managed by a central hub working on behalf of all South West ICBs.
Complaints about Dorset healthcare providers
Unfortunately, we are unable to investigate concerns relating to organisations that provide healthcare services. These include:
It is the responsibility of the service you have concerns about to investigate and address your issues directly. Please refer to the relevant section below:
Complaints about Dorset NHS Trusts
It is the responsibility of the service you have concerns about to investigate and address your concerns directly. For complaints about Dorset hospitals, please contact the organisations below directly via their Complaints Manager.
Complaints about other local providers
Help with making your complaint
If you would like help to make a complaint, The Advocacy People offers advice and support in making a complaint about the National Health Service in Dorset. This service is free of charge. Contact details:
The Advocacy People
PO Box 375
Hastings
TN34 9HU
Tel: 0330 440 9000
Text: 80800 using keyword PEOPLE, followed by your message
Email: info@theadvocacypeople.org.uk
Media enquiries
We welcome enquiries from the media and provide a helpful and professional service to local and national journalists.
We are also happy to support students by providing people for interviews however as our resource is limited, this may not always take priority.
Email: communication@nhsdorset.nhs.uk
Out of hours:
We are currently not able to respond to out of hours queries – please email them to communication@nhsdorset.nhs.uk and we will respond as quickly as we can.
