Complaints Policy
At Marlow Dental Centre, we strive to ensure that all our patients are satisfied with the services we provide. We value feedback from our patients and take any complaints seriously. Our aim is to address complaints courteously and efficiently, ensuring they are resolved as quickly as possible.
This Complaints Procedure outlines how we handle any complaints.
Person Responsible for Complaints
The person responsible for managing complaints within the practice is Sarah Bishop.
How to Complain
We hope that most issues can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your issue cannot be resolved in this way and you wish to make a complaint, you can do so:
- Verbally: Speak to one of our team members, who will direct you to the complaints lead.
- In writing: You can submit a complaint by letter or email.
Complaints Made Verbally
If you wish to make a complaint over the phone or in person, we will listen to your concerns and offer to refer you to our complaints lead. If they are unavailable, the staff member will take your details and a brief explanation of the complaint to pass on. Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days.
Complaints Made via Email or Letter
Any complaints received by letter or email will be immediately passed to our complaints lead. Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working days.
Investigations
We will contact you to discuss your complaint unless it can be resolved easily. Any complaints involving clinical care will be referred to the treating dentist, unless you request otherwise.
We will then investigate your complaint and aim to respond within ten working days. If it is not possible to resolve the complaint within this timeframe, we will inform you and provide an estimated resolution time.
Once a decision has been made regarding your complaint, we will inform you using your preferred contact method.
If the complaint concerns clinical care or is complex, we may need to seek advice from our insurers, indemnifiers, or legal advisors, and may need to share some of your information for this purpose
Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else
Please note that we strictly adhere to clinical confidentiality rules. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must be informed that you have their permission to do so. A signed note from the person concerned will be required, unless they are unable (due to physical or mental illness) to provide this themselves.
Time Limits for Opening Complaints
Complaints should be made within 12 months of the incident or from when the complainant first became aware of the issue.
Complaints to External Bodies
While we encourage you to use our practice complaints procedure, we believe this gives us the best opportunity to address any concerns and improve our service. However, this does not affect your right to raise the complaint with an external body if you feel you cannot do so with us or if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation.
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC): The CQC does not get involved in individual complaints about the practice but encourages feedback on service providers. You can send feedback to the CQC by visiting https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care or calling 03000 616161 (Mon to Fri, 8:30 am - 5:30 pm, excluding Bank Holidays).
- The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman:
Telephone: 0345 015 4033,
Website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk - Private Patients: The Dental Complaints Service handles complaints from private patients.
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm),
Website: https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/