If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system adheres to national criteria.
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 resolved in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened more easily.
If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint;
within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to ………………….. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with ……………………… in order to discuss your concerns. who 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 with your complaint.
We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten 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 those involved. In investigating 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.
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you know that you have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of physical or mental illness) of providing this.
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use 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. But this does not affect your right to approach the local health authority, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. You should contact the health authority complaints manager at………………………………………………………………………………. ( NHS patients) for further advice.
If you are still dissatisfied you may also wish to contact.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4 QP
Tel. 03450154033
For unresolved complaints about private care, you may wish to contact:
The Dental Complaints Service
The Landsdowne Building
2 Landsdowne Road
Croydon
Greater London
CR9 2ER
Tel. 08456 120540
Both NHS and PRIVATE patients, may wish to contact:
The General Dental Council,
37 Wimpole Street, London.
W1M 8DQ
Tel. 0845 222 4141
The Care Quality Commission, Finsbury tower 103-105 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TG Website: www.cqc.org.uk
Email: enquiries@cqc.org
Tel: 0300
