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Legal

Complaints procedure

How to raise a complaint about The Holiday Doctor and the channels available to you if we can’t resolve it directly.

Last updated: 31 May 2026

We want every consultation to feel professional, fair and easy to navigate. If something has not gone the way you expected, the way your case was handled, the time it took, an interaction with us, an invoice, anything. Please tell us. The route below is the one that gets your concern in front of someone who can actually do something about it.

1. Talk to us first

The fastest route is direct. Email us at help@theholidaydoctor.com and put “Complaint” somewhere in the subject line.

To help us respond quickly, please include:

  • The email address you used to submit your consultation, if applicable.
  • The approximate date of the consultation, if applicable.
  • What happened, in your own words.
  • What outcome you’re looking for.

If your complaint relates specifically to how Doctor Abbs SL has handled your personal data, for example, exercising rights of access, rectification or erasure, use the formal data-protection channel: privacy@nivelta.es. Doctor Abbs SL operates the Nivelta brand alongside The Holiday Doctor and uses one shared formal data-protection inbox. Full detail in the Privacy Policy.

2. How we handle complaints

When we receive a complaint we will:

  • Acknowledge it within two working days. You’ll get a reply confirming we have it and the name of the person looking into it.
  • Respond substantively within a reasonable time. For most complaints this is within fifteen working days of acknowledgement. If a complaint is more complex, we will tell you so and give a realistic timeline.
  • Be clear about the outcome. Our response will say what we found, what we’re going to do (if anything), and what your options are if you’re not satisfied.

For data-protection requests sent to privacy@nivelta.es, the response timescale is one month from receipt, extendable by a further two months for particularly complex requests under Article 12.3 GDPR.

3. Escalation routes

If you’re not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint, or if you would prefer to raise it with an external body directly, the following channels are available to you depending on the nature of the concern:

3.1 Data protection

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, AEPD) at any time, especially where you have not obtained satisfaction in exercising your data-protection rights directly with us. The AEPD has its registered office at C/ Jorge Juan, 6, 28001 Madrid, and can be contacted through www.aepd.es.

3.2 Professional conduct of the Medical Director

If your complaint concerns the professional conduct of Dr Adam Abbs as a doctor, you can contact the Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Madrid (ICOMEM), the body responsible for medical professional regulation in Madrid. ICOMEM is contactable through icomem.es. Dr Adam Abbs is registered with ICOMEM under colegiado number 282889105.

3.3 Healthcare quality and service delivery

If your complaint relates to the quality of the healthcare service itself, you can contact the health authority of your autonomous community in Spain. In Madrid this is the Consejería de Sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid, through its Inspección de Servicios Sanitarios. Other autonomous communities have equivalent bodies.

3.4 Consumer rights

For complaints about contractual matters, payment, withdrawal rights, the delivery of the service as advertised, you can contact the consumer service of your autonomous community, or the Dirección General de Consumo.

If you are resident in the European Union, you can also use the European Online Dispute Resolution Platform set up under Regulation (EU) 524/2013, available at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

3.5 Medicines safety (adverse drug reactions)

If you have experienced a suspected adverse drug reaction to a medicine that was prescribed through us, please tell us so that we can fulfil our pharmacovigilance obligations. You can also report the reaction directly to the Spanish Medicines Agency (AEMPS) through the SEFV-H portal at notificaram.es.

4. What we can and can’t do

We can:

  • Review how a consultation was handled and explain the clinical reasoning behind a decision.
  • Correct an administrative error, reissue an invoice, fix a billing problem, refund a payment that was taken in error.
  • Look at how a member of our team interacted with you and put right anything that fell below the standard we set ourselves.
  • Update our processes when a complaint surfaces a real problem.

We can’t:

  • Reverse a clinical decline. The decision whether to issue a prescription is a clinical judgement made by the Medical Director on the basis of the published eligibility criteria and current clinical evidence. If you disagree with the clinical reasoning, you are free to seek a second opinion elsewhere, but we will not overturn the decision in response to a complaint.
  • Provide a service we are not equipped to provide. We are a private prescribing service for a defined set of conditions; if your case falls outside that scope, the right answer is the right healthcare elsewhere, not a workaround through us.
  • Act outside the legal framework we operate in. The clinical record retention obligation under Ley 41/2002, the pharmacovigilance obligation to AEMPS, the tax and accounting obligations, the obligation of professional secrecy: these are not negotiable.

5. Related information

Last updated: 31 May 2026.