At Hampshire Dentists, we want our service to meet your expectations. If you have a concern or complaint about any aspect of our service, it is important that we are made aware in order to ensure that we can identify any improvement action necessary. 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 in a timely manner. Making a complaint The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service we provide is the Practice Complaints Manager, Jayne Warwick. In the Practice Complaints Managers absence, the complaint will be dealt with by the Practice Principal, Dr Robin Hanna. Both individuals are referred to as the ‘Complaints Manager’ for the purpose of the practice complaints policy and any relating protocols.

If you wish to make a complaint, address a concern or even, make a suggestion on how we could improve our service, please contact our Complaints’ Manager:

• By telephone: 02380 335155
• By email: reception@hampshiredentists.com
• By letter: Hampshire Dentists,  Hampshire House, 169A High Street, Southampton, SO14 2BY
• In person.

The Complaints’ Manager usually works at the practice on a full-time basis (Mon – Fri) and will endeavour to be available during these times. You may find it more convenient to make an appointment with the Complaints’ Manager to ensure that she/he can dedicate sufficient time to meet with you. If you contact the practice to make a verbal complaint, it may be that the Complaints’ Manager is not available at the time, in this case, 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 prior contacting you. You will be given a copy of the notes made for the Complaints’ Manager should you request them. 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 3 working days.

Investigating a complaint

The Complaints Manager will offer to discuss the complaint with you and will ask how you would like to be kept informed of developments: by telephone, letter, e-mail or by face-toface 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 (for example, within 10 working days) or, if the issue is complex, within 6 months 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 the Dental Complaints Service within 12 months of the treatment or within 12 months of becoming aware of the issue:

Dental Complaints Service: 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ Tel: 020 8253 0800

(Monday-Friday 9am-5pm)

Online: dcs.gdc-uk.org

You can also contact:

• The Care Quality Commission (CQC) who regulate private and NHS dental care services in England by calling 03000 616161. They can take action against a service provider that is not meeting their standards
• The General Dental Council (GDC) is responsible for regulating all dental professionals. You can complain using their online form at www.gdc-uk.org. You can also contact them on information@gdc-org.uk or by calling 020 7167 6000.