Practice complaints policy & procedure

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If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any of the staff working at the practice, please let us know, we operate a practice complaints procedure as part of the NHS system for dealing with complaints.  Our complaints system adheres to the national criteria.

How to complain

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We hope that most problems can be sorted out 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 at most a few weeks.

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

What shall we do?

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We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and complete full investigation within 10 working days after.  We shall then be able to offer you an explanation in writing, we will let you know if we require more time to respond.  In investigating your complaint, we will aim to:
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• Find out what happened and what went wrong
• 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 (over the age of 18), 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.

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‍Complaining on behalf of someone else

If you are not satisfied with our complaint’s procedure

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We hope that 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.  This does not affect your right to approach the correct authority, if you feel that you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.  If this happens you can refer your complaint to:

• PALs (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) NHSE Area Team, 2^nd Floor Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT.  (NHS Treatment)
• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QP.  Telephone: 0345 015 4033 or email: www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint (NHS Treatment)
• The Dental Complaints Service, The Lansdowne Building, 2 Lansdowne Road, Croydon, CR9 2ER.  Email:  www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk (Private treatment)
• The General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole Street, London W1M 8DQ. (Private Treatment)