At Bridges Dental Practice we pride ourselves on the high quality of care we provide our
patients and we aim to look after you as we wish to be looked after ourselves. However, if you have any concerns or comments regarding your dental care which you wish to raise, we will address these as
a matter of priority.
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Our core principles
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All of your feedback is important to us.
We want to make it easy for you to raise a concern or complain, if you need to.
We follow a complaints procedure and keep you informed.
We will try to answer all your questions and any concerns you raise.
We want you to have a positive experience of making a complaint.
Your feedback helps us to improve our service.
Our commitment to you
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We will take your complaint seriously and we will respect your confidentiality.
We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 3 working days.
We will alert our complaints coordinator of your complaint.
If your complaint is regarding clinical care, your complaint will be passed to the treating clinician in order for them to provide a response and resolution.
We will aim to provide a response to your complaint in full within 20 working days.
If there is a delay in providing you a response, we will contact you and
advise you of the delay at the earliest possible time.
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Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else
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Please note that we keep strictly to the rules of confidentiality. If you are complaining on someone else's behalf we have to know that you have the persons permission 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 are a child under 16 years.
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Third Party Escalation
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If you’re not happy with how your complaint has been handled, then please get in touch with our complaints coordinator, who can be contacted at reception@bridgesdental.co.uk
Please note that complaints that relate to treatment by your dentist or another independent practitioner, will be passed back to them for a secondary review.
Alternatively, you can contact the relevant third party at any time throughout your complaints process should you wish to, the contact details for these can be found below.
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Private patient
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Dental Complaints Service
Tel: 020 8253 0800 (Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm)
Email: info@dentalcomplaints.org.uk
Online form: contactus.gdc-uk.org/dcs/
Complaint/PrivatePatients
Address: Dental Complaints Service, 37
Wimpole Street, London W1G 8DQ
OR
Health Care Improvement Scotland (please note they can
be contacted about complaints at any time, not just as a third-party escalation body)
Programme Manager
Independent Healthcare Services Team
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Tel: 0131 623 4342 (10am-2pm, Monday to Friday)
Email: his.ihcregulation@nhs.scot
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Denplan patient
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The Head of Customer Services, Denplan Limited,
Hambleden House Waterloo Court, Andover SP10 1LQ
Email: ClinicalMediationService@simplyhealth.co.uk
Tel. 0800 169 7220
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NHS patient
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Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)
Freephone adviceline: 0800 377 7330
Online: spso.org.uk/contact-us
In person: Bridgeside House, 99 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NS
Fax: 0800 377 7331
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NHS patients can raise concerns directly to their local health
board- contact information for your local health board can
be found at: scot.nhs.uk/organisations.