Complaints Procedure

If you, or someone you care for, experiences poor care you can:

Raise your concerns with the management of the dental practice, including making a formal complaint; and tell the CQC about the matter.

Raise your concerns with the dental practice:

If you have concerns about the care being provided by your dental practice, the first thing you should do is tell the management of the practice. If your concerns cannot be resolved straight away, you can go through their formal complaints process. By law, every dental practice must have an efficient procedure for dealing with complaints. If your complaint is about NHS dental treatment and you are not happy with the way your dental practice deals with your complaint, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Your rights are explained at www.nhs.uk/NHSConstitution. If you pay for your treatment privately and you are not happy with the way your dental practice has dealt with your complaint, you can contact the Dental Complaints Service.

Tell The CQC:

The CQC role as regulator means that they do not settle individual complaints themselves, but they still want you to tell them about your experiences of care. Your information is valuable. It helps them decide when, where and what to inspect. When they find that a dental practice is not meeting the standards they will take action. You can tell them about concerns even when you do not want to make a complaint to the dental practice.

They also want to hear about good experiences of care. The best way to get in touch is by filling in the ‘Share your experience’ form online at www.cqc.org.uk. You can also phone on 03000 616161. You can also tell them about your experience of care through a local support group such as your LINk (local involvement network, to be replaced by local Healthwatch from April 2013).