Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you received from the dentist or any of our staff working in the practice, let us know. Our complaints system adheres to the national criteria.

How to complain:

We hope that most problems can be easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out 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 few weeks.

Complaints should be put in writing to our Practice manager, who will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly? It will be great help if you are specific with your complaint.

What shall we do?

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation. Investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:

1. Find out what happened and went wrong.
2. Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
3. Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else:

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentially. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to 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, if you have a problem, you will use our practice procedure. We believe this will provide the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. If patients are not satisfied with the result of or procedure then a complaint may be referred to:

The Dental complaints service, The Lansdowne building, 2 Lansdowne Road, Croydon, Greater London CR9 2ER Tele: 0845 120 540 or www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk for complaints about private treatment. Or the General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole street London, W1M 8DQ the dentists’ registration body.

Legal responsibilities

The rights of our patients and our staff with regards to discrimination are protected by anti-discrimination legislation including:

1. The Equality Act 2010.
2. Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000.
3. Employment Rights Act 1996.

By adopting this Policy, we accept our responsibility to ensure that discrimination does not take place and that everyone is treated fairly and equally.