Joyful Practice

Complaints Policy & Procedure

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We try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our services. We welcome
feedback from patients and take any complaints seriously. We aim to deal with complaints courteously
and efficiently so they can be resolved as quickly as possible.

Our complaints procedure outlines how we deal with any complaints.

The person responsible for dealing with any complaints in the practice is Dr Ayeh Mahdmina.

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How to Complain
We hope that most issues can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the
person concerned. If your issues cannot be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, you
can do so verbally by speaking to one of our team members, who will direct you to our complaints lead,
or you can write to us by letter or email.

Complaints Made Verbally
If you wish to make a complaint over the phone or in person, we will listen to your complaint and offer to
refer you to our complaints lead. If they are unavailable, the staff member will take your details and a
brief explanation of the complaint to pass on. Your complaint will be acknowledged within three working
days.

Complaints Made via Email or Letter
Any letters or emails regarding a complaint will be immediately passed to our complaints lead. Your
complaint will be acknowledged within three working days.
Investigations

We will contact you to discuss your complaint unless it can be resolved easily. Any complaints involving
clinical care will be referred to the treating dentist unless you request this not to happen.
We will then investigate your complaint and will aim to have a response for you within fourteen working
days. If it is not possible to resolve this within that timeframe, we will inform you and let you know when
it is likely to be resolved.

Once we have made a decision regarding your complaint, we will inform you using your preferred
contact method.

It is possible that if a complaint regards clinical care or is complex, we may need to seek advice from
our insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisors and, therefore, may need to share some of your information
for this purpose.

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Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we strictly adhere to the rules of clinical confidentiality. If you are complaining on
behalf of someone else, we must know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the
person concerned will be needed unless they are incapable (because of physical and mental illness) of
providing this.

Time Limits for Opening Complaints
Complaints should be made within 12 months of the incident or when the complainant first discovered
the problem.

Complaints to External Bodies
We hope you will use our practice complaints procedure if you have a concern. We believe this will give
us the best chance of correcting whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.
However, this does not affect your right to complain to an external body if you feel you cannot raise
your complaint with us or are dissatisfied with our investigation's result.

The CQC: The CQC don't get involved with complaints about the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback on service providers.

To send feedback to the CQC please go to: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care
Telephone: 03000 616161 (Mon to Fri, 8.30am - 5.30pm Excluding Bank Holidays)

 

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk

Private Patients: The Dental Complaints Service handles complaints made by private patients.
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)

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The GDC

Website: https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/
Telephone: 0854 222 4141 or 0207 887 3800
Website: https://contactus.gdc-uk.org/Complaint/Process/13

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Approved by: Dr Ayeh Mahdmina
Reviewed: January 2025