We are committed to providing high quality care for all and will ensure that our patients and their representatives can seek advice, provide feedback or make a complaint about any aspect of our service. This policy describes how we receive, manage, respond to and learn from complaints made about our service. All members of the team are expected to understand and follow this policy when dealing with a patient complaint.<\/p>\n
The key aspects of this policy are that:<\/strong><\/p>\n We believe that if a patient wishes to make a complaint or register a concern about any aspect of our service, they should find it easy to do so. Our code of practice for handling complaints, encourages patients to let us know when our service has not met their expectations and explains how we will investigate their complaint and keep them informed.<\/p>\n A complaint can be made by a patient of the practice or a person acting on their behalf if the patient is a child, has physical or mental incapacity, has consented to the person acting on their behalf, or has delegated authority to act on their behalf.\u00a0 A complaint can also be made by an individual who is, or is likely to be, affected by our actions, inactions, decisions or omissions.<\/p>\n A complaint provides us with the opportunity to identify where our practice systems have failed and what we can do to improve our service. In dealing with a complaint, we will<\/p>\n Handling a complaint efficiently and sympathetically from the outset may encourage early resolution and avoid the need for a formal complaint process, involving investigation and formal reports. which is stressful and time-consuming for all concerned.<\/p>\n When making a complaint, an individual usually wants an apology and to know what happened and why, what will be done to put it right, what action will be taken immediately and to prevent the cause for complaint happening again.<\/p>\n All members of the team must be able to receive a complaint or feedback (verbal or written) and deal with it appropriately. You should bear in mind, that the individual making the complaint may not refer to their concern as a complaint.<\/p>\n The practice Complaints Manger, Sintiche Slabbert is responsible for dealing with all complaints received by the practice, unless immediate resolution is possible.<\/p>\n Verbal complaints:<\/strong><\/p>\n Listen to what the individual is saying and be polite and considerate; avoid justifying the action that led to the complaint or being dismissive of the individual\u2019s concerns. Where possible and, depending on the nature of the complaint, you should aim to resolve the matter as soon as it is received, making a note of the complaint and how you resolved it and pass the information to the Complaints Manager, Sintiche Slabbert.<\/p>\n If you are unable to resolve the complaint immediately, you should encourage the individual to speak with the Complaints Manager. If the Complaints Manager is not available, you should take brief details of the complaint and arrange a convenient time for the Complaints Manager to contact the individual. Your notes should be passed to the Complaints Manager and a copy given to the patient, together with a copy of the code of practice for handling patient complaints.<\/p>\n Written complaints: If you receive a written complaint (by letter or email.), you should pass it immediately to the Complaints Manager.<\/p>\n The Complaints Manager will acknowledge the complaint in writing within 3 Working Days and enclose a copy of our code of practice for handling complaints. If a delay in acknowledging the complaint is anticipated, the reason for the delay will be explained to the individual.<\/p>\n The acknowledgement will include<\/strong><\/p>\n The purpose of the investigation is to<\/strong><\/p>\n We aim for the investigation to be completed and for the individual to receive the report within 10 working days. Where we anticipate a delay, we will explain this to the individual and provide an update on progress at least every 10 working days.<\/p>\n Before providing a written response, we will invite the individual to a meeting to discuss the findings of our investigation.<\/p>\n Our written response to the individual will<\/p>\n The Complaints Manager keeps full records of all complaints, investigations and responses. These records are kept securely and not with the individual\u2019s clinical records (if they are a patient of the practice).\u00a0 These records include:<\/p>\n We will undertake ongoing monitoring of all complaints to identify trends and assess training requirements.<\/p>\n We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our practice complaints procedure.\u00a0 We believe this will provide the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n For further advice, you should contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dental Complaints Service<\/strong><\/p>\n 37 Wimpole Street<\/strong><\/p>\n London<\/strong><\/p>\n W1G 8DQ<\/strong><\/p>\n Telephone: 020 8253 0800<\/strong><\/p>\n (Monday \u2013 Friday 9am \u2013 5pm)<\/strong><\/p>\n Or<\/strong><\/p>\n General Dental Council<\/strong><\/p>\n 37 Wimpole Street<\/strong><\/p>\n London<\/strong><\/p>\n W1G 8DQ<\/strong><\/p>\n Email: www.gdc-uk.org<\/strong><\/p>\n Telephone: 0845 222 4141 or 020 7887 3800<\/strong><\/p>\n Complaints and the CQC<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We will undertake ongoing monitoring of all complaints to identify trends and assess training requirements.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are committed to providing high quality care for all and will ensure that our patients and their representatives can seek advice, provide feedback or make a complaint about any aspect of our service. This policy describes how we receive, manage, respond to and learn from complaints made about our service. All members of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-81","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Information for patients<\/h3>\n
Our approach to complaints<\/h3>\n
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Practice complaints process<\/h3>\n
Receiving complaints<\/h4>\n
Acknowledgement<\/h4>\n
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Response<\/h4>\n
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Records<\/h4>\n
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Learning from complaints<\/h4>\n
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Complaining to Dental Complaints Service<\/h3>\n