It is our aim at Cardiff Dental and Aesthetics to always have satisfied patients, to meet your needs and expectations of care and service, and to resolve any complaints efficiently and effectively as possible.

At our practice we take complaints seriously. All complaints will be dealt with promptly and courteously to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Our aim is to react to complaints and concerns and learn from any issues which may arise.

If there is a problem and you wish to make a complaint, you can make your complaint to our Complaints Manager, Miss E. Williams, or to any member of our reception team.

If we receive a complaint by telephone or in person, we will listen and try to resolve the issue. If we cannot resolve the issue at this time, we will offer to refer you to the Complaints Manager immediately. If the Complaints Manager is not available at the time, we will arrange a convenient time for the Complaints Manager to contact you. The member of staff will take brief details of the issue and pass it on to the Complaints Manager at the earliest convenience. If the matter requires a more immediate response, we will arrange for a senior member of the dental team to deal with it.

If we receive a complaint in writing or via email, it will be passed immediately to our Complaints Manager.

If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges, it will usually be referred to the dentist concerned unless you do not want this to happen.

All dentists and specialists working and visiting the practice to carry out treatment are responsible for the clinical work they carry out and hold their own indemnity. If a complaint is raised against any dentist, we will as a practice acknowledge, investigate and respond to the complaint against that particular dentist.

We will acknowledge a complaint in writing and enclose a copy of our practice policy as soon as possible — normally within 3 working days — but the Complaints Manager will often get back to you within 24 hours, usually by giving you a call.

We will offer to discuss the complaint with you and confirm how you would like to be kept informed of the developments (via telephone, letter or email). We will inform you about how the complaint will be handled and the likely time the investigation will take to complete. If you do not wish to discuss the complaint any further, we will still inform you of the expected timescale for completing the investigation.

We will seek to investigate the complaint within 4 weeks and, as far as reasonably practicable, we will keep you informed as to the progress of the investigation.

When we have completed the investigation, we will provide you with a full written report. This will include an explanation of how we considered the complaint, the conclusions reached in respect of each specific part of the complaint, details of any necessary remedial action taken and whether further action will be taken.

Proper and comprehensive records will be kept of any complaints received and the action we take. These records will be reviewed regularly to ensure that we take every opportunity to improve our service.

If we fail to resolve the complaint against the dentist in question, you will have the right to take the complaint to the Dental Complaints Service against the dentist concerned.