Patient Complaints Procedure

At Beechwood Dental we take complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service. If you have any cause to complain, it will be dealt with courteously and promptly so that the issue is resolved as quickly as possible.

Our aim is to react to complaints in a way in which we would want our complaint about a service to be handled. We learn from every mistake that we make and respond to customers in a caring and sensitive way.

Practice Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentist or any other staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure; our complaint system adheres to national criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, 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 within 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 John Mihaescu (Practice Manager) or Sorinela Mihaescu (Principal Dentist). Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with John Mihaescu, to discuss your concerns. He 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.

Tel: 01202 397074
Email: info@beechwooddental.co.uk

What we shall do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within three working days and aim to have investigated your complaint within ten working days of the date when you raised it with us. If we cannot fulfil these timescales we will let you know promptly. We shall then be able 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
• Resolve the problem efficiently
• Identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.
• Write to you giving a full explanation of findings and resolution.

Complaining on 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 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 or mental illness) of providing this.

Taking your complaint further

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. In the unlikely event that our Practice is unable to deal with any complaint to your satisfaction, you should contact:

For Private Patients:

Dental Complaints Service
Tel: 08456 120 540
E-mail: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk

For NHS Patients:

NHS England
Tel: 0300311 2233
E-mail: England.contactus@nhs.uk

Reviewed: January 2022 by John M