Complaints Policy

At 21D Clinical we try to ensure that all of our patients are pleased with their experience of our services. We welcome feedback from patients and take any complaints seriously. We aim to deal with any complaints courteously and efficiently so that they can be resolved as quickly as possible. Our complaints procedure outlines how we will deal with any complaints. The person responsible for dealing with any complaints is Jonathan Garbett.

‍Complaints Made Verbally
If you wish to make a complaint over the phone or in person, we will listen to your complaint and offer to refer you to the complaints lead. If they are unavailable, the staff member will take your details and a brief explanation of the complaint to pass on. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.

‍Complaints Made via Email or Letter
Any letters or emails regarding a complaint will be immediately passed to the complaints lead. Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days.

‍Investigation
We will contact you to discuss your complaint unless it can be resolved easily. Any complaints involving clinical care will be referred to the treating dentist unless you request this not to happen. We will then investigate your complaint and will aim to have a response for you within 20 working days. If it is not possible to resolve this within that timeframe, we will inform you and let you know when it is likely to be resolved. Once we have made a decision regarding your complaint we will inform you by your preferred contact method. It is possible that if a complaint regards clinical care or is complex, we may need to seek advice from our insurers, indemnifiers or legal advisors and, therefore, may need to share some of your information for this purpose.

‍Complaints to External Bodies
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 an independent body, if you feel you cannot raise your complaint with us or you are dissatisfied with the result of our investigation.

‍The CQC: The CQC don’t get directly involved with complaints made to the practice. They do, however, encourage giving feedback to service providers.
To send feedback to the CQC please go to: https://www.cqc.org.uk/give-feedback-on-care
Telephone: 03000 616161 (Mon to Fri, 8.30am – 5.30pm Excluding Bank Holidays)

You can also contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if you are unhappy with how the practice, or ICB, has dealt with your complaint.
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Website: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk

‍Private: Dental Complaints Service
Telephone: 0208 253 0800 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
Website: https://dcs.gdc-uk.org/

‍GDC
Telephone: 0854 222 4141 or 0207 887 3800
Website: https://contactus.gdc-uk.org/Complaint/Process/13