Complaints Policy

Complaints Policy

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 complaints procedure for dealing with complaints. Our complaints system meets 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 this way and you wish to make a complaint, we will respond to your complaint within three working days, giving us time to establish what happened.

If it is not possible to do that, please let us have the details of your complaint within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem. Formal complaints should be addressed to the inbox: Complaints.uk@smile2impress.com.

You may ask for an appointment in order to discuss your concerns. We will explain the complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It’s important that you are as specific as possible when disclosing the details of your complaint.

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to investigate your complaint within 20 working days of the date when you first raise it with us.

We shall then be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with the people involved.

When we investigate 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.

Should a patient make a complaint or claim, we may need to provide information about the patient, and the treatment they have received, to insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisers.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we keep strictly 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 of providing this (because of physical or mental illness).

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 are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.

Dental Complaints Service

  • Stephenson House
  • 2 Cherry Orchard Road
  • Croydon CR0 6BA
  • Phone: 020 8253 0800 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm)

General Dental Council

Financial Complaints

If the complaint is financial in nature and you remain dissatisfied with our response, or if we have not provided a resolution within 15 working days of receiving the complaint, you have the right to refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

Financial Ombudsman Contact Details:

For Patients in Scotland

Patients in Scotland have the right to contact national services for support and regulatory matters regarding healthcare complaints. This includes services for both public and independent healthcare.

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

The SPSO is the final stage for complaints about most public services in Scotland, including the NHS.

NHS Scotland – Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS)

Provides free, confidential, and independent advice and support for patients.

 

Right to Contact the Healthcare Regulator (Independent Services)

Patients have the right to contact the healthcare regulator at any time. This may be done whether or not a complaint has been made directly to the service provider.

If you are using or have concerns about an independent healthcare service in Scotland (such as this one), you can contact:

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)