Complaints

In 2012 the GDC issued guidance on how dental practices may promote their services on a website.

This practice has made the appropriate changes throughout the website as required. One of the new requirements, however, is that a dental practice must display its practice�s complaints procedure on its website. Here is ours.

Code of Practice for Patient Complaints

In this practice we take complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service. A complaint is anything that makes the service user or third party dissatisfied with our service. This ranges from the point of initial contact and all subsequent interaction throughout the duration or our service delivery. The complaint process serves to empower service users and third parties to communicate dissatisfaction, criticism or complaint. We treat all complaints seriously and with equal merit. When patients complain, they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible.

  • Our aim is to react to complaints in the way in which we would want our complaint about a service to be handled. We learn from every mistake that we make and we respond to customers' concerns in a caring and sensitive way.
  • The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is Mrs Julie Pitt, our practice manager.
  • If a patient complains on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to their complaint and offer to refer him or her to the Practice Manager immediately. If the Practice Manager is not available at the time, then the patient will be told when they will be able to talk to the dentist and arrangements will be made for this to happen. The member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with it.
  • If the patient complains in writing the letter or email will be passed on immediately to the Practice Manager.
  • If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist, unless the patient does not want this to happen.
  • We will acknowledge the patient's complaint in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within three working days.
  • We will seek to investigate the complaint within 10 working days of receipt to give an explanation of the circumstances which led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to them on the telephone or by writing them a letter. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within ten working days we will notify the patient, giving reasons for the delay and a likely period within which the investigation will be completed.

Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received.

If patients are not satisfied with the result of our procedure then a complaint may be made to:

The Dental Complaints Service:

Dental Complaints Service, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ (Telephone: 020 8253 0800  Website: dcs.gdc-uk.org) for complaints about private treatment.

The General Dental Council:

37 Wimpole Street, London, W1M 8DQ (Telephone: 0845 222 4141), the dentists' regulatory body for complaints about professional misconduct

The GDC also offers a 'typetalk' facility for customers with impaired hearing. This can be accessed by calling 18001 0845 222 4141 on your typetalk/minicom handset. The website address for the GDC is www.gdc-uk.org

Last modified: October 20 2023 10:57:58.