Lime Grove Dental Care Ltd (November 2023)                                                                

Complaints Procedure

Lime Grove Dental Care Ltd takes complaints very seriously and we try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service.  When patients complain, they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. 

Our aim is to react to complaints in the way in which we would want our complaint about a service to be handled.  We learn from every mistake that we make and we respond to customers’ concerns in a caring and sensitive way.

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentists or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure.  Our complaint system adheres to national guidelines.

How to complain & what we shall do

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, at the time they arise and with the person concerned.  If your problem cannot be sorted in this way and you wish to make a formal complaint, we would like you to let us know as soon as possible – ideally, within a matter of days or at most a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened most easily.  If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint:

• Within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
• Within 12 months of discovering that you have a problem
• The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is Deborah Martin.
• If a patient complains on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to their complaint and offer to refer him or her to Deborah Martin immediately. If Deborah Martin is not available at the time, then the patient will be told when they will be able to talk to the dentist and arrangements will be made. The member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with it.
• If the patient complains in writing the letter or email will be passed on immediately to Deborah Martin.
• If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist, unless the patient does not want this to happen.
• We will acknowledge the patient’s complaint in writing and enclose a copy of this Code of Practice as soon as possible, normally within 2 working days.
• We will seek to investigate the complaint within 10 working days of receipt to give an explanation of the circumstances which led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to them on the telephone. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within 10 working days we will notify the patient, giving reasons for the delay and a likely period within which the investigation will be completed.
• We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.
• Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received in our Complaints File.

In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:

• Find out what happened and what went wrong
• Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this
• Ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality.  If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we must know that you have the permission to do so.  A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable of providing this because of physical or mental illness or are a child under 16 years.

Complaining to Dental Complaints Service

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of our practice complaints procedure.  We believe this will provide the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.  However, this does not affect your right to complain to an independent body, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. 

If you wish for further advice, you should contact: