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 sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we will respond within three working days, enabling us to establish what happened more easily. If it is not possible to do that, please let us have details of your complaint within 12 months of the incident that caused the problem.

Complaints should be addressed to Stephen Hendry – Complaints Manager, or Pauline Mulholland – Deputy Complaints Manager. You may ask for an appointment to discuss your concerns. We will explain the complaints procedure to you and ensure your concerns are promptly resolved. It would be a great help if you were as specific as possible about your complaint.

What shall we do:

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days and aim to investigate your complaint within 14 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 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 their treatment to insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisers.

Complaining on behalf of someone else

Please note that we strictly follow 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 (because of physical and mental illness) of providing this.

Complaining to your local Health Board

We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. This will give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice. if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation, you may wish to contact the

RQIA directly via;

Telephone: (028) 9536 1111
Email: info@rqia.org.uk

For more information, visit RQIA’s website: www.rqia.org.uk

Additional assistance to help raise a complaint- 

You can get practical help to raise your complaint from the Patient and Client Council (PCC).

You can contact the PCC at:

Telephone: 0800 917 0222
Email: info.pcc@hscni.net

For more information, visit PCC’s website: www.patientclientcouncil.hscni.net

Denplan Patients

Denplan Clinical Mediation Service

T: 0800 169 7220
E:clinicalmediationservice@denplan.co.uk

Private Patients

Dental Complaints Service
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ

T: 0208 253 0800
W:https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/

NHS Patients

Strategic Planning and Performance Group (NHS patients)

Department of Health
12 – 22 Linenhall Street
Belfast BT2 8BS

Email:SPPGcommunications@hscni.net

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman
Progressive House
33 Wellington Place
Belfast, BT1 6HN

T: 0800 343 424 | E:nipso@nipso.org.uk

A complaint can be made online or a form can be downloaded

from:https://nipso.org.uk/nipso/making-a-complaint/how-do-i-make-a-complaint-to-nipso/

RQIA

Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority

James House
2-4 Cromac Avenue,
Belfast, BT7 2JA

Telephone 02895361111