COMPLAINTS POLICY

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any of the staff working at this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets national criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we will respond to your complaint within three working days, enabling us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem.

Complaints should be addressed to Vicky Farr - Complaints Manager, or Lucy Stevens – Deputy Complaints Manager. You may ask for an appointment in order to discuss your concerns. We will explain the complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible about your complaint.

What shall we do:

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to investigate your complaint within 14 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved. When we investigate your complaint, we shall aim to:

  • Find out what happened and what went wrong

  • Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned if you would like this

  • Make sure you receive an apology where this is appropriate

  • Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again

    Should a patient make a complaint or claim, we may need to provide information about the patient, and treatment they have received, to insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisers.

    Complaining on behalf of someone else

    Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of clinical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of physical and mental illness) of providing this.

    Complaining to NHS England

    We hope that if you have a problem, 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. This does not affect your right to approach the NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation

    Should you wish to make a direct complaint to NHS England please contact:

    NHS England Customer Support Centre, PO Box 16738, Redditch. B97 9PT, Telephone: 03003112233 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, excluding English Bank Holidays) Email: England.contactus@nhs.net

    Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman Millbank Tower Millbank, London SW1P 4QP Telephone: 0345 015 4033 Email: www.ombudsman.org.uk

    Dental Complaints Service 37 Wimpole Street London W1G 8DQ Telephone: 020 8253 0800 (Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm)

    General Dental Council 37 Wimpole Street London W1G 8DQ Telephone: 0845 222 4141 or 020 7887 3800 Email: www.gdc-uk.org