Complaints and Grievance Procedure

Complaints and Grievance Procedure

Suwa Care is not for emergencies. If you think you or someone else may be seriously ill or injured, call 1990 (Suwa Seriya ambulance) or 119 (Police), or go to the nearest hospital emergency unit. Do not wait for a Consultation.

1. About this procedure

Suwa Care ("we", "us", "our") is Softx LLC, a limited liability company registered in Montana, United States (file number 17056359), mailing address 21 Miller Aly, Pasadena, CA 91103-3643, United States. Words such as Doctor, Consultation, Booking and Platform have the meanings given in our Terms of Service.

We want to know when something goes wrong, and we reply to every complaint. You can use this procedure, free of charge, to complain about:

• a Consultation, or a Doctor's care or behaviour;
• the Platform, a Booking, a payment or a refund;
• how we handle your personal data; or
• our staff and our service.

You can complain for yourself, as a Guardian for a Patient, or for someone else with their permission. Doctors should use the process in their Provider (Doctor) Agreement.

This procedure does not affect your legal rights, including the outside bodies in section 10.

2. How to complain

• Email: support@suwa.care
• In the app or website: [[IN-APP COMPLAINT ROUTE]]
• Post: Softx LLC, 21 Miller Aly, Pasadena, CA 91103-3643, United States

For a complaint about your personal data, you can also write to our Data Protection Officer (section 9). For now we can receive and answer complaints in English only. If you need help to make a complaint, tell us and we will help.

Please complain as soon as you can, while you still remember what happened. You may complain without giving your name. We may then be unable to reply or to ask you anything, but we still act on what you tell us, and we always look into a safety concern about a Doctor.

3. What to include

Tell us as much of this as you can:

• your name, the email address on your account, and how to contact you;
• if you are complaining for someone else, their name and your relationship to them;
• the date and time of what happened, and any Booking or invoice number;
• the Doctor's name, if your complaint is about a Doctor;
• what happened, and what you would like us to do; and
• any screenshots, messages or documents that help explain it.

Never send us your full card number or your password: we never need them. Include only the health details needed to explain your complaint, and we will ask if we need more. If you cannot give all of this, please complain anyway.

4. What happens next

1. We acknowledge your complaint within [[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TIME]], give you a reference and tell you who is handling it.
2. We look into it. We may check the records of your Booking, your payment and your Consultation, and speak to the people involved, including the Doctor (section 7).
3. We answer in writing within [[RESOLUTION TARGET]], explaining what we found, what we will do, and what you can do if you are not satisfied.

If we need longer, for example because a Doctor must respond, we will tell you why and when to expect our answer.

Depending on what we find, we may:

• explain what happened;
• apologise;
• correct a mistake;
• give a refund under our Refund and Cancellation Policy;
• change how we work;
• suspend or remove a Doctor from the Platform; or
• report a Doctor to the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

5. If you are not satisfied

Reply to our answer and ask for a review. [[ESCALATION REVIEWER]], who was not involved the first time, will review your complaint and send you a final written answer within [[ESCALATION RESPONSE TARGET]]. For a complaint about clinical care, the reviewer will take advice from [[CLINICAL ADVISER]]. If you are still not satisfied, you can go to the outside bodies in section 10.

6. Urgent safety concerns

Do not use this procedure for an emergency. Call 1990 or 119, or go to the nearest hospital, first. When you are safe, tell us straight away by email to support@suwa.care with "Urgent safety concern" in the subject line. We deal with these before other complaints. They include:

• a Doctor behaving in a threatening, abusive or sexually inappropriate way;
• a Doctor who appears impaired, or who may not be the person they claim to be;
• a serious mistake in a Prescription; or
• someone else using your account.

While we look into a serious concern, we may suspend a Doctor from the Platform. You can also contact the SLMC yourself, and the police on 119 if you believe a crime has been committed.

7. Complaints about clinical care

Doctors are responsible for their clinical decisions, and the SLMC oversees their professional conduct. We still look into every complaint about a Doctor.

• We share your complaint with the Doctor. We give the Doctor the details they need in order to respond, and no more.
• We may look at your records. Staff handling your complaint may open the records of that Consultation, such as the Doctor's notes, Prescriptions and messages. Only staff who need to see them may do so, and we log each time they are opened.
• We keep your complaint confidential, and share it and your health information only with those who need them to deal with it, or where the law requires.
• Reporting to the SLMC. The Ministry of Health's Telemedicine Guidelines say a platform should report a health professional's non-compliance to the SLMC, and we will. Before we give the SLMC your identity or your health information, we will tell you first, unless the law stops us. If you would rather we did not, tell us: we will still report where we must, and we will tell you that we have.
• You can complain to the SLMC yourself (section 10), whether or not you complain to us.

8. Complaints about payments and refunds

Our Refund and Cancellation Policy explains when you can get a refund and how to ask. If you disagree with a decision about a payment or refund, or a refund has not arrived, complain using this procedure and include the payment date, the amount and your invoice number.

If your complaint is that you should have had a refund, ask for the refund as well, within 14 days of [[THE CONSULTATION DATE OR THE PAYMENT DATE]], as our Refund and Cancellation Policy explains. Do not wait for the result of your complaint: the time limit for asking keeps running.

You can also ask your bank or card issuer about a charge you dispute; you do not have to come to us first. For consumer complaints you can go to the Consumer Affairs Authority (section 10).

9. Complaints about your personal data

If you are unhappy with how we collect, use, share or protect your personal data, write to our Data Protection Officer at privacy@suwa.care, or to support@suwa.care. Our Privacy and Data Protection Notice explains your rights and how to use them. If our answer does not satisfy you, you can complain to the Data Protection Authority of Sri Lanka (section 10).

10. Outside bodies you can contact

You can contact these bodies at any time. You do not have to finish our procedure first.

Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) — a Doctor's professional conduct. No. 31, Norris Canal Road, Colombo 10; +94 71 741 2222; info@slmc.gov.lk.

Data Protection Authority of Sri Lanka — your personal data. First Floor, Block 5, BMICH, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 07; +94 112697241; info@dpa.gov.lk; www.dpa.gov.lk.

Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) — a service you paid for. 1st and 2nd Floor, C.W.E. Secretariat Building, No. 27 Vauxhall Street, Colombo 02; hotline 1977. Time limits apply: a complaint to the CAA usually has to be made within 3 months, or within 1 month where the complaint is that a service was not provided with due care and skill. Our procedure does not pause these limits, so go to the CAA in time even if your complaint with us is still open.

Private Health Services Regulatory Council (PHSRC) — private health services. No. 2A, CBM House, 4th Floor, Lake Drive, Colombo 08; +94 11 2672911.

You can also take independent legal advice, or go to court.

11. No retaliation

We will not close your account, refuse you service, or treat you less favourably because you complained to us or to an outside body, and Doctors on the Platform must not either. If you think that is happening, tell us: we will treat it as a new complaint.

We may still act under our Terms of Service if someone is abusive or threatening, or knowingly makes a false complaint.

12. Our records of complaints

We keep a record of each complaint: what it was about, who was involved, what we did, the outcome, and any report to an outside body. We use them to deal with your complaint, to fix recurring problems, and to give information to regulators where the law requires. Only staff who need them have access, and we keep them for [[COMPLAINT RECORD RETENTION]]. Our Privacy and Data Protection Notice explains how we protect them.