complaints procedure

If you have a complaint or a concern about the service you have received from the dentists or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know.  We operate a Complaints Procedure as part of an NHS system for dealing with complaints.  This system meets national criteria.

How to Complain

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, let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – as this will enable us to establish what happened more easily. If this is not possible, please let us have details of your complaint either within six months of the incident that caused the problem or within six months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within a year of incident.

Complaints should be addressed to Miss Charlene Gore, the practice Manager. Alternatively you may ask for an appointment in order to discuss your concerns. She will explain the Complaints Procedure and ensure that your complaints are dealt with promptly. It would be a great help if you could be as specific as possible about your complaint.

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 14 working days of the date it was raised. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation or offer a meeting with those involved. In our investigation of your complaint we shall aim to:

a) find out what happened and what went wrong;

b) enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned if this is your wish;

c) ensure you received an apology, where this is appropriate;

d) Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else we have to 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 illness, of providing this.

Complaining to the Primary Care Trust (PCT)

We hope that if you have a problem you will make use of our practice Complaints Procedure. We believe this will give us 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 approach the NHS if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.

You should contact the following:

Emma McCabe

NHS complaints manager

TEL: 01634 382741

EMAIL: emma.mccabe@nhs.net