Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentists or any of the staff working at Redmires Dental Care, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure.

At Redmires Dental Care we take 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 promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible.

We learn from every mistake that we make and we respond to patient concerns in a caring and sensitive way.

The persons responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is our  Principal Dentist Raj Patel.

How To Complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this enables us to establish what happened most easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of this incident.

All complaints will be referred to our  Principal Dentist, Raj Patel.  If they are not available at the time, you will be told when you will be able to talk to them; alternatively an appointment can be made for you to discuss your concerns. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or you do not wish to discuss this matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with it.

If you wish to complain in writing, please address the letter to Raj Patel. If a complaint is about any aspect of your clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist; unless you do not want this to happen.

What We Shall Do

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 2 working days enclosing our code of practice. We will then aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We will enclose a copy of the code of practice.

We will seek to investigate the complaint speedily and efficiently and we will keep you regularly informed, as far as reasonably practicable, as to the progress of the investigation.

We will inform you about how the complaint will be handled and the likely time that the investigation will take to be completed. If you do not wish to discuss the complaint, we will still inform you of the expected timescale for completing the process.

After investigation we shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved.

In Investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong

When we have completed our investigation, we will provide you with a full written report. The report will include an explanation of how the complaint has been considered, the conclusions reached in respect of each specific part of the complaint, details of any necessary remedial action and whether the practice is satisfied with any action it has already taken or will be taking as a result of the complaint.

We shall Aim To:

• enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;
• ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
• identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again.

Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received as well as any actions taken to improve services as a consequence of a complaint.

Investigations will normally be completed within six months.

Complaining On Behalf Of Someone Else

Please note that we strictly adhere 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 of providing this because 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. You may wish to contact one of the following:

For those patients registered with this practice with Denplan, they can contact Denplan by telephone for advice:

Denplan Ltd
Denplan Court
Victoria Road
Winchester
S023 7RG

Tel. 0800 169 7220

For those patients who have a complaint regarding treatment they have received under private care the contact details are:

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

Tel. 020 825 30800
Email: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk
www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk

For those patients who have a complaint regarding treatment they have received under the NHS can also contact the Primary Care NHS Trust/HB – their contact details are as follows:

NHS Sheffield Tel: 3051000

All patients may also contact the General Dental Council:

The General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1M 8DQ

Tel: 02071676000
Email: complaints@gdc-uk.org

For more information from them, please visit the GDC website.