Complaints Code of Practice

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 the 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.

• If you wish to make a complaint or simply let us know how we could have done better, please contact Mr Amar Patel our complaints manager.
• Complaints can be made by telephone to 01883-744297, by letter to the practice address, by e-mail to info@godstonedentalcare.co.uk and verbally in person.
• If you do not feel you can raise a complaint about your NHS service directly with us you can address your complaint directly to Surrey Heartlands at www.surreyheartlands.org/complaints-and-concerns Telephone number: 01483 310500 or e-mail: nhsadvocacy@surreyilc.org.uk
• 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 we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period of time or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for a senior member of the dental team to deal with it.
• If your complaint is about your dental treatment or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist concerned unless you do not want this to happen.
• We will acknowledge all complaints in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within three working days.
• 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, 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 promptly within 10 working days or if the complaint investigation takes longer than anticipated, the complaints manager will contact you at least every 10 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 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. You will be invited to a meeting at the practice to discuss the results and any practical solutions we can offer to you.
• Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaints that we receive and the action we have taken following the investigation. We review these records regularly to ensure that we recognise our mistakes and take every opportunity to improve our service.

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.

• The Dental Complaints Service 0208 2530800 at 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ or visiting www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk for complaints about private treatment
• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Telephone on 0345 0154033 or by visiting www.ombudsman.org.uk complaints about NHS treatment
• Care Quality Commission, National Customer Service Centre, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE1 4PA. Telephone on 03000 616161.