Complaints Procedure

Code of Practice for Patient Complaints

If you have a complaint or 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 practice complaints procedure. Our complaint system adheres to national criteria.

Purley Dental Practice takes complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all patients are pleased with their experience of our service. When patients complain, they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. This procedure is based on these objectives.

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 patient’s concerns in a caring and sensitive way.

The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service we provide is our Practice Manager Mrs Elaine Paice.

If a patient complains on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to his or her complaint and offer to refer him or her to Mrs Paice immediately.

If Mrs Paice is not available at the time, then the patient will be told when he or she 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 of 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 patients complains in writing the letter will be passed on immediately to Mrs Paice.

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 two working days. We will seek to investigate the complaint within ten working days of the complaint being received to give an explanation of the circumstances that led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to him or her on the telephone. 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.

We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.

Proper and comprehensive reports are kept of any complaint received.

If patients are not satisfied with the result of our procedure then a complaint may be made to Dental Complaints Service.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf on someone else, we have to know that you have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable of providing this of physical or mental illness or are a child under 16 years.

Complaining to Dental Complaints Service

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 the Dental Complaints Service, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. If you wish further advice you should contact:

Dental Complaints Service

Dental Complaints Service
Stephenson House
2 Cherry Orchard Road
Croydon CR0 6BA​

TEL: 020 8253 0800 – email: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk

You may also wish to contact The General Dental Council for more advice

The General Dental Council

37 Wimpole Street
London W1M 8DQ
TEL:020 7887 3800 – email: Complaints@gdc-uk.org

The Care Quality Commission

CQC National Customer Service Centre
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA

Telephone: 03000 616161
Fax: 03000 616171

Contact us:

Purley Dental Practice Ltd: 020 8660 6565
Email: toothpaice@gmail.com