Complaints Policy and Procedure
We try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our services. We welcome feedback from patients and take any complaints seriously. We aim to deal with any complaints courteously and efficiently so that they can be resolved as quickly as possible.
Our complaints procedure outlines how we deal with any complaints.
The Practice Manager is responsible for dealing with any complaints in the practice.
How to make a Complaint
We hope that most issues can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your issues cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, you can do so verbally by speaking to one of our team members, who will direct you to our complaints lead, or you can write to us by letter or email.
Complaints Made Verbally
If you wish to make a complaint over the phone or in person, we will listen to your complaint and offer to refer you to our complaints lead. If they are unavailable, the staff member will take your details and a brief explanation of the complaint to pass on. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.
Complaints Made via Email or Letter
Any letters or emails regarding a complaint will be immediately passed to our complaints lead. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.
Investigations
We will contact you to discuss your complaint unless it can be resolved easily. Any complaints involving clinical care will be referred to the treating dentist unless you request this not to happen.
We will then investigate your complaint and will aim to have a response for you within 10 working days. If it is not possible to resolve this within that timeframe, we will inform you and let you know when it is likely to be resolved.
Once we have made a decision regarding your complaint we will inform you by your preferred contact method.
It is possible that if a complaint regards clinical care or is complex, we may need to seek advice from our insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisors and, therefore, may need to share some of your information for this purpose.
Time Limits for Opening Complaints
Complaints should be made within 12 months of the incident or when the complainant first
discovered the problem.
Still Unhappy ?
We hope that if you have a concern, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. However, this does not affect your right to complain to an external body, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you can contact one of the following independent organisations:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk
Private Patients: The Dental Complaints Service handles complaints made by private patients.
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
Website: https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/