Complaints Policy
Making a Complaint
We want our services to meet your expectations. If you have a concern or complaint about any aspect of our service, we want to know what mistakes we made and work out how we can improve to ensure our services meet your expectations in the future.
We aim to develop from any feedback we receive and improve the services we provide to our patients. We will deal with complaints considerately and promptly and aim to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
All complaints will be dealt with confidentially.
If you wish to make a complaint or simply let us know how we could have done better, we would like you
to let us know.
Please contact Sarah Salisbury:
Martock Dental Practice
13 Church Street Martock
Somerset
TA12 6JL
01935 823040
[email protected]
We will acknowledge all complaints within three working days and will enclose a copy of this information leaflet. If a delay in acknowledging a complaint is anticipated the reason for the delay will be explained to you.
The acknowledgment will include; a confirmation that the matter will be investigated and that you will receive a report of the findings.
Investigating a Complaint
We will offer to discuss the complaint with you and ask how you would like to be kept informed of developments, such as via telephone, letter, email or in person.
At this stage we shall try to establish what you would consider a satisfactory resolution.
We will let you know how we will deal with the complaint and the likely time that the investigation will take to complete, our aim is to complete the investigation and for you to receive the report within 10 working days. This is not always possible and if a delay is anticipated then this will be explained to you.
Response
Before providing a written response, we shall invite you to a meeting to discuss the findings in our investigation and keep you informed of the progression.
When we have completed the investigation, we will provide you with a written report, unless you have stated that you do not wish for further communication. The report will explain how we consider the complaint, the conclusion we have reached and details of any remedial action we have taken and whether further action is required.
Records
We will keep proper and comprehensive records of any complaints or suggestions, the investigation, responses and outcomes. These records will be kept securely and not with your clinical records.
We review these records regularly to ensure that we recognise our mistakes and take every opportunity to improve our services.
Complaining on behalf of someone else
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must 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 because of physical or mental illness or are a child under the age of 16 years old.
If you are not satisfied
We hope that if you have a dissatisfaction, we will make use of our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will provide the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and give us an opportunity to improve our practice. However, this does not affect your right to complain to the relevant external organisation if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. If you wish for further advice, please contact;
Dental Complaints Service
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ
020 8253 0800 or 0845 2224141