Complaints Policy and Procedure
We try to ensure that all 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 that 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 in the practice is Melissa Owen.
How to complain
We hope that most issues can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your issues cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, you can do so verbally by speaking to one of our team members, who will direct you to our complaints lead, or you can write to us by letter or email.
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 to our complaints lead.
Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.
Investigations
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 it is not possible to resolve this within that timeframe, we will inform you and let you know when it is likely to be resolved. 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.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we strictly adhere to the rules of clinical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must 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 physical and mental illness) of providing this.
Time Limits for Opening Complaints
Complaints should be made within 12 months of the incident or when the complainant first discovered the problem.
Complaints to External Bodies
We hope that if you have a concern, you will use 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. This does not affect your right to approach the ICB if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us. However, this does not affect your right to complain to an external body, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
The CQC
The CQC don’t get involved with complaints made to the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback on service providers.
To send feedback to the CQC please go to: cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care
Telephone: 03000 616161 (Mon to Fri, 8.30am – 5.30pm Excluding Bank Holidays)
The NHS
If you would rather not go directly to your practice and your treatment is provided by the NHS, you can contact your local ICB, which is responsible for NHS dental services.
South Yorkshire ICB
Rotherham Office
Riverside House
Rotherham
S60 1AE
syicb-sheffield.icbcomplaints@nhs.net
If you feel unable to raise your concerns with the practice, you can contact the ICB. However, the ICB cannot re-investigate complaints already made to the practice, so if you feel unhappy with how the practice or the ICB has handled a complaint, you should contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Private Patients
The Dental Complaints Service handles complaints made by private patients
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
Website: www.dcs.gdc-uk.org
The GDC
Telephone: 0854 222 4141 or 0207 887 3800
Website: contactus.gdc-uk.org/Complaint