If you have a complaint or concern about the service you have received from the dentists or any of the staff working in this practice, please let us know. We operate a practice complaints procedure that adheres to Welsh national criteria.

How to complain

We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If your problem cannot be dealt with 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 a few weeks – because this will enable us to establish what happened most 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 about the treatment you received should be made to the dentist who normally sees you. She will explain our complaints procedure to you and will ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will help if you are as clear as possible about your complaint.

What We Shall Do

We shall acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and aim to have looked into your complaint within 10 working days of the date when you raised it with us. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved.

In investigating your complaint, we shall aim to:

· Find out what happened and what went wrong

· Enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this

· Ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate

· Identify what we can do to make sure the problem does not happen again

If we cannot fully investigate and respond to your complaint within the time limits above, we will keep you fully informed of our progress.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we must keep strictly to the rules of medical confidentiality. If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we have to know that you have their permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable of providing this because of physical or mental illness or are a child under 16 years. 

Responding to Your complaint

After we have considered your complaint and reviewed all the information we can obtain in connection with it, we will reply fully to you with details of:

• The nature and substance of your complaint, as it was described to us, by you

• The investigations we have undertaken to fully consider the matter complained of

• The conclusions we have reached after a full investigation and the actions we will take, (if it is found that we have been at fault, failed in our duty of care to you or otherwise acted or failed to act in such a way as to give you cause for legitimate dissatisfaction) to ensure that such an act or omission should not occur again in the future.

What to do if you are unhappy with our response

We hope that, if you have a problem, you will make use of 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. However this does not affect your right to complain to the following bodies at any time, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us, or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation. 

If you seek further advice, you should contact:

· Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW)

Rhydycar Business Park

Merthyr Tydfil

CF48 1UZ

Phone: 0300 062 8163

E- mail: hiw@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Or: 

Public Service Ombudsman for Wales

1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae

Pencoed

CF35 5LJ

Tel: 0845 601 0987

http://www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/

You may also like to contact the General Dental Council for more advice:

· General Dental Council

37 Wimpole Street

London

W1M 8DQ

Tel. 020 7887 3800

E-mail: Complaints@gdc-uk.org

For your Private treatment complaints, you can also contact: 

· Dental Complaints Service

Stephenson House

2 Cherry Orchard Rd

Croydon

CR0 6BA

Tel. 08456 120 540

E-mail: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk

For those patients registered with this practice with Denplan, you may contact Denplan by telephone for advice: Tel. 0800 169 7220