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 to your complaint 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 Robert Zabihi – Complaints Manager, or Helena Zabihi – Deputy
Complaints Manager. 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 will be a great
help if you are 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
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 (because of physical and mental illness) of providing this.
Complaining to NHS England
We hope that if you have a problem, you will use our practice complaints procedure. We believe this will
give us the best chance of putting right whatever has gone wrong and an opportunity to improve our practice.
This does not affect your right to approach the NHS England if you feel you cannot raise your complaint
with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.
Should you wish to make a direct complaint to NHS England please contact:
NHS England Customer Support Centre, PO Box 16738, Redditch. B97 9PT, Telephone: 03003112233
(Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, excluding English Bank Holidays)
Email: England.contactus@nhs.net
Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower Millbank, London SW1P 4QP
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Email: www.ombudsman.org.uk
Dental Complaints Service
37 Wimpole Street London W1G 8DQ
Telephone: 020 8253 0800 (Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm)
General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street London W1G 8DQ
Telephone: 0845 222 4141 or 020 7887 3800
Email: www.gdc-uk.org
Complaints and the CQC
The CQC don’t get directly involved with complaints made to the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback for service providers.
To send feedback to the CQC about please go to: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care or Telephone: 03000 616161
Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm Excluding bank holidays
Approved By: Robert Zabihi Date Published: 22/04/2022