Patient Complaints Policy
We try to ensure that all of our patients are pleased with their experience of our services. We welcome feedback from patients and take any complaints seriously.
We aim to deal with any complaints courteously and efficiently so they can be resolved as quickly as possible.
Our complaints procedure outlines how we deal with any complaints.
The person responsible for dealing with any complaints is Tanya Fisher
Complaints made Verbally
If you wish to make a complaint over the phone or in person, we will listen to your complaint and offer to refer you to our complaints lead. If they are unavailable, the staff member will take your details and a brief explanation of the complaint to pass on. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.
Complaints made via Email or Letter
Any letters or emails regarding a complaint will be immediately passed onto the complaints lead. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.
Investigation
We will contact you to discuss your complaint unless it can be resolved easily. Any complaints involving clinical care will be referred to the treating dentist unless you request this not to happen.
We will then investigate your complaint and will aim to have a response for you within 10 working days. If the complaint investigation takes longer than anticipated, the complaints manager will contact you every 10 working days to keep you informed of the reason for any delays, the progress of the investigation, and the proposed date it will be completed.
Once we have made a decision regarding your complaint, we will inform you by your preferred contact method.
It is possible that if a complaint regards clinical care or is complex, we may need to seek advice from our insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisors and therefore may need to share some of your information for this purpose.
You can send your complaints to 7 Poole Road, Bournemouth Dorset, BH2 5QR or call us on 01202 763348 or email the Complaints Manager on reception@alingtondental.com
If the problem cannot be resolved, it will be referred to the Clinical Director (Mr. Simon Belford).
If the Clinical Director is unavailable, details about the complaint will be saved for when the Director returns. We will keep comprehensive and confidential records of your complaint, which will be stored securely and only be accessible to those who need to know about your complaint.
We regularly analyse patient complaints to learn from them and to improve our services. That’s why we always welcome your feedback, comments, suggestions, and complaints.
If you are dissatisfied with our response to a complaint, you can take the matter further. Please see the contacts below.
Complaints to External Bodies
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.
If you are dissatisfied with our response to a complaint, you can contact the GDC Private Dental Complaints Service within 12 months of the treatment or within 12 months of becoming aware of the issue.
Contacts:
- Private: Dental Complaints Service
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri 9am–5pm)
Website: https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/ visit www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk
You can also contact:
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC) who regulates private and NHS dental care services in England by calling 03000 616161. The CQC do not get directly involved with complaints made to the practice ,They do however encourage giving feedback to service providers , to send feedback please go to : https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care
The General Dental Council is responsible for regulating all dental professionals. You can complain using their online form at www.gdc-uk.org, contact them at information@gdc-org.uk, or by calling 020 7167 6000.