Complaints Procedure

At Hamworthy Dental Practice our aim to always have satisfied patients, to meet your expectations of care and service and to resolve any complaints as efficiently, effectively and politely as possible. We take complaints very seriously, we investigate them in a full and fair way and take great care to protect your confidentiality. We learn from complaints to improve our care and service.

If you are not entirely satisfied with any aspect of our care or service, please let us know as soon as possible to allow us to address your concerns promptly.

The practice manager will be your personal contact to assist you with any complaint. If your verbal complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, a written complaint should be addressed to the Practice Manger or Mr Rothman the Practice Principal. The practice manager will acknowledge it in writing and will aim to provide a full response in writing as soon as practical.

If the Practice Manager or Mr Rothman is unavailable, we will take brief details about the complaint and will arrange for a meeting when the person is next available.  We will keep comprehensive and confidential records of your complaint, which will be stored securely and only be accessible by those who need to know about your complaint. If the complaint is about any aspect of clinical care, it will normally be referred to the dentist. If the named persons are unavailable, at the time, then the patient will be advised when they will be able to talk to the dentist and arrangements will be made for this to happen. The member of the team will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on.

If the complaint investigation takes longer than anticipated the Complaints Manager will keep you informed of the reason for the delay, the progress of the investigation and the proposed date it will be completed.

When the investigation has been completed, you will be informed of its outcome in writing and invited to a meeting to discuss the results and any practical solutions that we can offer to you.

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 it further, please see the contacts below.

Contacts

For private dental treatment 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 by calling 020 8253 0800 or visiting www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk

You can also contact

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 on information@gdc-org.uk or by calling 020 7167 6000.

In England: The Parliamentary Health Ombudsman (England): by calling 0345 015 4033 or visiting www.ombudsman.org.uk

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) who regulates private and NHS dental care services in England by calling 03000 616161. They can take action against a service provider that is not meeting their standards