The Dentists and staff at Novocare Dental are committed to providing high quality care. If you have a complaint, concern or suggestion about any aspects of the practice, please let us know. We operate a Practice complaints procedure that adheres to national and NHS guidelines.
We hope that most concerns can be resolved easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your concern cannot be dealt with in this way and you wish to make a complaint, we would like you to contact us 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 so, please provide us with details of your complaint within six months of the incident that caused the concern or within six months of discovering it, provided this is within twelve months of the incident. Be assured that this will not affect your continuing care with us. Mrs Tola Oke is our Complaints manager. Complaints should be addressed to her or any of the dentists. Please provide as much detail as possible and try to be specific.
The Complaints Manager will normally acknowledge your complaint within three working days to discuss the best way to investigate it and the time scale for a reply. There will be circumstances when adherence to this timetable is not possible, e.g. when staff members concerned are on holiday or when specialist professional advice is required. Once your complaint has been investigated, we shall be in a position to offer you an explanation, or a meeting with those involved.
In looking into your complaint, we aim to:
⦁ Find out what happened and what went wrong.
⦁ Make it possible for you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you wish.
⦁ Make sure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate.
⦁ Identify what we can learn to ensure such does not happen again.
Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality and dental records are protected by the Data Protection Act 2018. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we need to 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 disability) of providing this.
We hope that if you have a concern, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe that this will provide the best chance of putting things right and give us an opportunity to learn and improve our services. However, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or are dissatisfied with the results of our investigation, you may contact the following: The Independent Complaint Advocacy Service (ICAS) can provide free impartial support when you are making a complaint. They can assist you in writing a letter or arrange for an interpreter if needed.
Website: www.pohwer.net
NHS England
Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net
The Private Dental Complaints Service
Tel: 0208 2530800
For complaints about private treatment
The General Dental Council
Tel: 02071676000
Address: 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8DQ
Care Quality Commission
Email: enquiries@cqc.org
Tel: 03000616161
The Health Service Ombudsman
Tel: 0345 015 4033
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Healthcare Watch Hertfordshire
Email: info@healthwatchhertfordshire.co.uk
Tel: 01707 275978
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