Statement of Purpose
Our Practice has exceptionally high values regarding patient care and will continue to strive to achieve goals and provide patient satisfaction. The Dental Practice aims to provide excellent oral health treatments in line with local and national guidelines to children and adults of all needs by offering outstanding services across all of the counties and communities they serve. We understand the importance of having an in depth understanding and knowledge of local patients’ needs and the benefits their views can have on our services and regularly carry out patient satisfaction surveys and have implemented a ‘suggestion box’ to ensure we are responsive to our patient’s needs.
Practice Aims and Objectives
To provide patient centred dental care of a consistent high quality, taking into account patients individual needs. To regularly review Practice working methods and encourage suggestions for improving patient care. To keep up to date with current thinking on all aspects of general dentistry. To provide continuous improvement of our services through patient views and experiences Services
Complaints Handling Policy
It is the aim of this practice to ‘Have a Clear and Effective Complaints Procedure’ by meeting the GDC ‘Standards for the Dental Team’, to meet the NHS complaints requirements and deliver good practice in complaint handling. We have appointed Ankush Garg or Vishal Bhudia as our ‘Responsible Person’.
The practice has appointed a Complaints Manager, Ankush Garg or Vishal Bhudia, and our complaints procedure is on display in all waiting rooms. We have published our complaints procedure on our website in line with GDC advertising standards.
Feedback and complaints handling framework
This practice has developed a framework for managing complaints and feedback based on these principles:
- All patient feedback is important to us
- We want to make it easy for patients to raise a concern or complain, if you need to
- We follow a complaints procedure and keep patients informed
- We will try to answer all patient questions and any concerns you raise
- We want patients to have a positive experience of making a complaint
- Patient feedback helps us to improve our service
Recognising complaints
Our team are aware that complaints are any expression of dissatisfaction by a patient (or their representative) about a dental service or treatment. Complaints can be verbal or written and can be about any part of the service we provide. All complaints must be logged internally, even if the complaint was verbal and resolved within 24 hours.
Recording complaints
Complaint Records are treated as confidential at all times and kept separate from clinical records.
Handling complaints
The practice team is trained to resolve all complaints promptly, efficiently and politely by following our Patient Complaints Procedure. The team responds to complaints in the time limits set by the Patient Complaints Procedure and always provides constructive responses to complaints. The practice never discriminates against a patient who has made a complaint.
Team members cannot react defensively to a complaint but must listen carefully to a patient who makes one whilst involving them fully in the process of managing it. The team members will, to the best of their abilities, endeavour to meet any outcomes the patient expects and offer sincere apologies when appropriate.
If a patient is not satisfied despite our best efforts to resolve the complaint, they will be informed about other avenues that are open to them such as the GDC Dental Complaints Service and/ or the NHS Ombudsman.
The team are regularly trained in complaint handling and are involved in the regular review of complaints, complaints procedures and management- so that services, policies and procedures can be continually improved.
Response timescales
All complaints will be acknowledged and responded to by the practice within the timescales detailed in the Patient Complaints Procedure.
We keep patients informed of the status of the complaint during the investigation stage and always aim to resolve the complaint within the timeframe specified in our policies and procedures or as agreed with the complainant.