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 Andrew Paterson – Complaints Manager, or Sarah Paterson – 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 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 and the CQC
The CQC don’t get directly involved with complaints made to the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback for service providers.
To send feedback to the CQC about please go to: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care or Telephone: 03000 616161 Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm Excluding bank holidays
Approved By: Andrew Paterson
Date Published: 11/06/2021