ADDRESSING CONCERNS CODE OF PRACTICE

We want our service to meet your expectations. If you have a concern about any aspect of our service, we want to know why we have failed to meet your expectations and identify how we can improve to ensure that we meet your expectations in future. Our aim is to learn from any feedback we receive and improve the service we provide to our patients.

We will deal with concerns courteously and promptly and aim to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

Raising a concern

If you wish to raise a concern or simply let us know how we could have done better, please contact our Practice Manager:

• By telephone
• By email
• By letter
• In person

These details for each practice can be found on our website. You may find it more convenient to make an appointment with the Practice Manager to ensure that they can dedicate sufficient time to meet with you.

If you contact the practice to raise a concern and the Practice Manager is not available, we will arrange a convenient time for them to contact you. We will ask you for brief details of your concerns so that the Practice Manager can gather any useful information before contacting you. You will be given a copy of the notes made for the Practice Manager.

If the matter requires a more immediate response, we will arrange for a senior member of the dental team to deal with it.

If your concern is about your dental treatment or the fee charged, we will usually ask the dentist concerned to contact you, unless you do not want this.

We acknowledge all concerns in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within 3 working days.

Addressing a concern

We will offer to discuss the concern with you and will ask how you would like to be kept informed of developments – by telephone, letters or e-mail or by face-to-face meetings. We will let you know how we will address your concern and the likely time that it will take. If you do not wish to discuss your concern further, we will still let you know the expected timescale for responding to your concerns.

We will try and respond within 10 working days, but if we are unable to do so we will keep you updated.

The response will try and address your concerns and identify any learning points that will enable us to maintain a high standard of patient care.

Records

We keep proper and comprehensive records of any concerns that we receive and the action we have taken as a result.  We review these records regularly to ensure that we recognise any shortcomings and take every opportunity to improve our service.

If you are not satisfied

If your concerns was about your dental treatment and you are not satisfied with our response you can take up the matter with a relevant external organisation.

For concerns about NHS treatment:

ENGLAND:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Citygate

Mosley Street

Manchester

M2 3HQ

Email phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

Tel 0345 015 4033

www.ombudsman.org.uk

For concerns about private treatment:

Dental Complaints Service,

37 Wimpole Street,

London

W1G 8DQ

020 8253 0800 or online at https://contactus.gdc-uk.org/dcs/Complaint/PrivatePatients