Code of Practice for Handling Patient Complaints
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.
Making a complaint
If you wish to make a complaint or simply let us know how we could have done better, please contact Miss Ann-Marie Howells BDS, our Complaints’ Manager:
By telephone on 01639 882280
By email at talbotroaddp@live.co.uk
By letter to Miss AM Howells BDS, Talbot Road Dental Practice, 116 Talbot Road, Port Talbot SA13 1LB
In person.
The Complaints’ Manager usually works at the practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 9am-5pm and Fridays 9am-4pm 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 two 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 10 days, 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
We keep proper and comprehensive records of any complaints that we receive and the action we have taken following investigation. We review these records regularly to ensure that we recognise our mistakes and take every opportunity to improve our service.
If you are not satisfied
If your complaint was about your dental treatment and you are not satisfied with the result of our investigation, you can take up the matter with a relevant external organisation.
If your treatment was provided under National Health Service arrangements, you can contact:
Swansea Bay University Health Board/ SBUHB
Primary and Community Services Delivery Unit/ Uned Cyflenwi Gwasanaethau Sylfaenol a Chymunedol
Block A
Neath Port Talbot Hospital
Baglan Way
Port Talbot
SA12 7BX
Tel/Ffon: 01639 684500
You may also like to contact the General Dental Council (The dentist’s registration body) for more advice.
General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1M 8DQ
Tel. 020 7167 6000
E-mail: Complaints@gdc-uk.org
If your dental treatment was provided under private arrangements, you can contact:
Dental Complaints Service
Stephenson House
2 Cherry Orchard Rd
Croydon
CR0 6BA
Tel. (020 8253 0800)
E-mail: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk
Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW)
Rhydycar Business Park
Merthyr Tydfil
CF48 1UZ
Phone: 0300 062 8163
E- mail: hiw@gov.wales
For those patients registered with this practice with Denplan you can contact Denplan by telephone for advice:
Denplan: Tel. 0800 401402
If you remain unhappy after an attempt at resolution of your complaint by either the practice or one of the above organisations, then you may request a review of your complaint by the Ombudsman:
Public Service Ombudsman for Wales
1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
CF35 5LJ
Tel: 0300 790 0203
http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/