Complaints Policy

FILING A COMPLAINT

If you are unhappy about any aspect of your care, Share a Smile Ltd has a formal complaints policy which details the stages of the complaint process. It also provides you with the timescale we aim to address your complaint to your satisfaction.

The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about our practice is our Practice Manager: Gary St Pierre.

HOW TO FILE YOUR COMPLAINT:

  • Our Practice Manager will inform Dr Heinrich Ferreira if you wish to file a complaint. If the complaint is made in person, you will be taken into a private area and given the time for us to hear your comment or complaint in full.

  • If the complainant is not the patient, written consent must be provided by the patient on whose behalf the complaint is being filed.

  • If the complaint is made in writing, the complaint will be recorded as such, and the patient will be invited to file an official complaint, explaining its circumstances in detail.

  • If you wish to pass a complaint immediately to our Practice Manager, you can make a complaint in an e-mail to Gary St Pierre via gary.stpierre@shareasmile.co.uk.

  • If you wish to make a complaint on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to your complaint and offer to refer you to our Complaints Manager immediately. If the Complaints Manager is unavailable, we will let you know when you can speak to Gary St Pierre, and arrangements will be made for this to happen.

OUR COMPLAINT-MANAGING TIMESCALE

  • Written acknowledgement of your complaint should be sent within two working days.

  • A full response will be sent within ten days, or when an investigation is ongoing, a full response will be sent within five days of its conclusion.

Our staff at Share a Smile Ltd take any complaint very seriously and will support any patient who wishes to complain to ensure that the matter is properly resolved.

OUTSIDE COMPLAINT-MANAGING RESOURCES

If you remain unhappy, you can contact the complaints resolution services below:

Dental Complaints Service, Stephenson House, 2 Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon CR0 6BA
(T) 08456 120 540
(E) info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk
(W) www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk

The General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1M 8DQ (T) 0845 222 4141), the dentists’ regulatory body for complaints about professional misconduct.

Dental Health Foundation Helpline (T) 0845 063 1188.

Please be assured that any comment or complaint you wish to make about our service will not affect the treatment and care you receive at our practice.

If you have any questions, comments, or views about the information printed in this Guide or in our treatment leaflets, please speak to a team member here at our practice. The information contained in our guides is reviewed at least once a year, and we take into account all suggestions made when we update our documentation.