Complaints Procedure

LeoDental always has patient care at the heart of everything we do. If you do have any suggestions we would welcome these at info@leodental.co.uk.

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

LeoDental takes complaints very seriously and we try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience. In the event our service has not met your expectations, when we receive a complaint we will endeavour to deal with it courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible.

We learn from every mistake we make and respond to any concerns in a caring and sensitive way. Please note we will never discriminate against patients who have made a complaint.

LeoDental Complaint Process

  1. Dr Kunal Shah is the nominated Complaints Manager at LeoDental – Bell Lane Dental Practice and will be your personal contact to assist you with any complaints with the service we provide.
  1. If a patient complains on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to their complaint and offer to refer him/her to the Complaints Manager immediately.
  1. If the Complaints Manager is unavailable, then the patient will be told when they will be able to talk to the Dentist / Complaints Manager and arrangements will be made accordingly. The member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on appropriately.
  1. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with the matter respectively. If the patient complains in writing, the letter or email will be passed on immediately to the Complaints Manager.
  1. If the patient complains in writing directly in the first instance, the letter or email will be passed on immediately to the Complaints Manager.
  1. If a complaint is regarding any aspect of Clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist, unless the patient requests this not to happen.
  1. We will acknowledge the patient’s complaint in writing as soon as possible, normally within 3 working days.
  1. We will aim to investigate the complaint within 10 working days of receipt to give an explanation of the circumstances which led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to them on the telephone. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within 10 working days we will notify the patient, giving reasons for the delay and a likely period within which the investigation will be completed.
  1. We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.
  1. Comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received in Complaints File.

Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Please note that we abide strictly to the rules of confidentiality.

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

Contacts

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 and service.

However, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation, you can obtain further advice from the contacts below:

For NHS Complaints:

  1. You can address your complain directly to NHS England on contactus@nhs.net with ‘For the attention of the complaints team’ in the subject line.

OR

  1. You can also contact theCare Quality Commission (CQC) who regulates private and NHS dental care services in England by calling 03000 616161.

For Private Dental Treatment:

You can contact the GDC private dental complaints service within 12 months of the treatment or within 12 months of becoming aware of the issue:

Dental Complaints Service
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ

Tel. 0208 253 0800
E-mail:  info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk

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

The General Dental Council
37 Wimpole Street
London
W1G 8DQ

Tel. 020 7167 6000
E-mail:  information@gdc-uk.org