Complaints Policy
Patient complaints procedure
It is our aim to always have satisfied patients, to meet your expectations of care and service and to resolve any complaints as efficiently, effectively and politely as possible. We take complaints very seriously, investigating them in a full and fair way and take great care to protect your confidentiality. We learn from complaints to improve our care and service. We will never discriminate against patients who have made a complaint and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have about this procedure.
If you are not entirely satisfied with any aspect of our care or service, please let us know as soon as possible to allow us to address your concerns promptly. We accept complaints made verbally as well as written complaints.
Kate Marston-Taylor is the Complaints Manager and will be your personal contact to assist you with any complaints.
You can send your complaints to Northlight Dental, 6 The Square, Aspley Guise, MK17 8DF, call us on 01908 584461 or email the Complaints Manager on pm@northlightdental.co.uk
If the Complaints Manager is unavailable, we will take brief details about the complaint and will arrange for a meeting when it is suitable for you and the practice. We will keep comprehensive and confidential records of your complaint, which will be stored securely and only be accessible by those who need to know about your complaint. If the complaint investigation takes longer than anticipated, the Complaints Manager will contact you at least every ten working days to keep you informed of the reason for any delays, the progress of the investigation and the proposed date it will be completed.
When the investigation has been completed, you will be informed of its outcome in writing. We will make our response clear, addressing each of your concerns as best as we can. You will also be invited to a meeting to discuss the results and any practical solutions that we can offer to you. These solutions could include replacing treatment, refunding fees paid, referring you for specialist treatments or other solutions that meet your needs and resolve the complaint.
We regularly analyse patient complaints to learn from them and to improve our services. That’s why we always welcome your feedback, comments, suggestions and complaints. If you are dissatisfied with our response to a complaint, you can take the matter further, please see contacts below.
If you are dissatisfied with our response to a complaint, you can contact the GDC private dental complaints service within 12 months of the treatment or with 12 months of becoming aware of the issue. Please see the contact details below.
Contacts
GDC private dental complaints service can be contacted by calling 020 8253 0800 or visiting www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk
The General Dental Council is responsible for regulating all dental professionals. You can complain using their online form at www.gdc-uk.org contact them on information@gdc-org.uk or by calling 020 7167 6000.
- We aim to resolve verbal complaints within 24hours where possible, but if you complain in writing the Complaints Manager will send an acknowledgement letter within 3 working days and will aim to provide a full response in writing as soon as practical.
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC) who regulates private and NHS dental care services in England by calling 03000 616161. They can take action against a service provider that is not meeting their standards.
Complaints Policy
We want our service 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 identify how we can improve to ensure that we meet your expectations in future. Our aim is to learn from any feedback we
receive and improve the service we provide to our patients.
We will deal with complaints courteously and promptly and aim to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
Patient Complaints
If you wish to make a complaint or simply let us know how we could have done better, please contact Julie Picken, our Complaints’ Manager:
- 6, The Square, Aspley, Guise, Milton Keynes MK17 8DF
- 01908 584461
- info@northlightdental.co.uk
- In Person
The Complaints’ Manager usually works at the practice Monday to Thursday and will endeavour to be available during these times. You may find it more convenient to make an appointment with Complaints’ Manager to ensure that she can dedicate sufficient time to meet with you.
If you contact the practice to make a complaint and the Complaints’ Manager is not available, we will arrange a convenient time for them to contact you. We will ask you for brief details of your complaint so that the Complaints’ Manager can gather any useful information before contacting you. You will be given a copy of the notes made for the Complaints’ Manager.
If the matter requires a more immediate response, we will arrange for a senior member of the dental team to deal with it. If your complaint is about your dental treatment or the fee charged, we will usually ask the dentist concerned to contact you, unless you do not want this.
We acknowledge all complaints in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within 3 working days.
Investigating a Complaint
We will offer to discuss the complaint with you and will ask how you would like to be kept informed of developments – by telephone, letters or e-mail or by face-to-face meetings. We will let you know how we will deal with your complaint and the likely time that the investigation will take to complete. If you do not wish to discuss the complaint further, we will still let you know the expected timescale for completing the investigation.
We will investigate your complaint within 6 months and, as far as reasonably practicable, will let you know how our investigation is progressing.
When we have completed our investigation, we will provide you with a full written report, unless you have told us that you do not wish for further communication. The report will explain how we considered the complaint, the conclusions we reached for each part of your complaint, details of any remedial action we have taken and whether further action is needed.
Records
If you are not satisfied
- For complaints about the NHS
- NHS England PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
- 0300 3112233
- england.contactus@nhs.net
- The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank London SW1P 4QP.
- 0345 015 4033
- www.ombudsman.org.uk
For complaints about private treatment:
- Dental Complaints Service, Stephenson House, 2 Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon CR0 6BA.
- 020 8253 0800
