If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system adheres to national criteria.
How to complain
We hope that most problems can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be resolved in this way and you wish to make a 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 more easily.
If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint;
- within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
- within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, provided this is within 12 months of the incident.
Complaints should be addressed to Dr L.M.A. Cheung. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with Dr L.M.A. Cheung, in order to discuss your concerns, who will explain the complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will be a great help if you are as specific as possible with your complaint.
What shall we do
We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with those involved. In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:
- Find out what happened and what went wrong.
- Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this.
- Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
- Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
Complaining of 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 have to know that you know that you have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of physical or mental illness) of providing this.
Complaining to the Dental Complaints Service
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use 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. But this does not affect your right to approach the Dental Complaints Service, 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 can contact:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4 QP
www.ombudsman.org.uk
Tel. 03450 154033
For unresolved complaints about private care, you may wish to contact:
The Dental Complaints Service
Stephenson House
2 Cherry Orchard Road
Croydon
CR0 6BA
www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk
Tel. 020 8253 0800
Both NHS and PRIVATE patients, may wish to contact:
The General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1M 8DQ
Tel. 020 78873800
[email protected]
The Care Quality Commission
Finsbury Tower
103-105 Bunhill Row
London
EC1Y 8TG
Tel: 03000 616161
www.cqc.org.uk
[email protected]
Patients registered with Denplan at our practice can contact Denplan by telephone for advice:
Denplan: 0800 169 7220