If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any of the staff working at this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system adheres to national criteria.
We hope that most problems can be sorted out quickly and easily, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be sorted out 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 six months of the incident that caused the problem
Within six months of discovering that you have a problem, provided that it is within twelve months of the incident
Complaints should be addressed to Mrs Barkess. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with Mrs Steele to discuss your concerns. She 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 about your complaint.
We shall acknowledge your complaint within five 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
o Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again
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 have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (due to physical or mental illness) of providing this.
We hope that, if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. But this does not affect your right to approach the local health authority, if you feel you can’t raise your compliant with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
Version No 5
Date of Issue
Date of Review Dec 2025
Jan 2019
