Complaints Policy
If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dental team 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 best practice.
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 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. 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 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 three 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 three working days.
Complaints should be addressed to the Complaints Lead. 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 10 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 Dental Complaints Service
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will provide 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 independent body, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
For further advice, you should contact:
Dental Complaints Service
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ
Telephone: 020 8253 0800
(Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm)
Or
General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ
Email: www.gdc-uk.org
Telephone: 0845 222 4141 or 020 7887 3800
Complaints to External Bodies
We hope you will use our practice complaints procedure if you have a concern. We believe this will give us the best chance of correcting 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 are dissatisfied with our investigation’s result.
The CQC: The CQC don’t get involved with complaints about the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback on service providers.
To send feedback to the CQC please go to:https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care
Telephone: 03000 616161 (Mon to Fri, 8.30am – 5.30pm Excluding Bank Holidays)
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/
The GDC
Telephone: 0854 222 4141 or 0207 887 3800
Website: https://contactus.gdc-uk.org/Complaint/Process/13 Document