Cancellation and Missed Appointment Policy

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The purpose of this policy is to inform patients of charges they may incur for missed appointments, late arrivals or cancellations.

We do ask that a minimum of 48 hour notice is given to change or cancel an appointment, we do however understand that in some circumstances this is not always possible and ask that patients give us as much notice as they can. Please note that our appointments are time critical, therefore patients that arrive late may not been seen as this will impact our other patients.

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We do contact all patients that fail to attend appointments and a charge is not usually applied for the first instance.

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New Patients

If the first appointment is cancelled within 48 hours or not kept, a second appointment may be offered, however if that appointment is not kept no further appointments will be offered.

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Private patients

Failure to Attend (FTA)

First FTA – Patients will receive a warning text message and or email.

Second FTA – A charge equalling £1 for each minute of the missed appointment (20 min apt = £20 charge).

Third FTA – A second charge will be required at the discretion of the dentist who may consider removing the individual from their list.

All Hygienist appointments are private and failure to attend the appointment or a late cancellation within 48 hours will result in the loss of payment

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Denplan

FTA appointment fees which apply to our private patients, as stated above will also apply to all our Denplan patients. Please refer to Denplan care/essentials information booklet section 10 of the terms and conditions.

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NHS Patients

Due to NHS regulations, we are not able to charge patients for late cancellations or failing to attend an appointment however we do ask that at least 48 hours’ notice is given where possible. Multiple failed appointments will result in your name being removed from the dentists NHS list.

Text message reminders are sent 48 hours prior to patient’s appointment time and email reminders are sent out 5 working days prior to the appointment. Asking patients to check their contact information regularly ensures that this service works effectively.

Please note Text and email appointment reminders are provided out of courtesy not necessity. It is your responsibility to turn up on time to your appointment.

 

Code of Practice for Handling Patient Complaints

We want our service to meet your expectations. If you have a concern or complaint about any aspect of our service, we want to know what mistakes we made and identify how we can improve to ensure that we meet your expectations in future. Our aim is to learn from any feedback we receive and improve the service we provide to our patients.

We will deal with complaints courteously and promptly and aim to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

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Making a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint or simply let us know how we could have done better, please contact Ami-Jo Campbell our Practice Manager:

• By telephone on 0121 747 2071

• By email at pm76dental@gmail.com

• By letter to Ami-Jo Campbell, 112 Coleshill Road, Water Orton, Birmingham, B46 1RD.

• In person.

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The Complaints Manager usually works at the practice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and will endeavour to be available during these times. You may find it more convenient to make an appointment with Practice Manager to ensure that she can dedicate sufficient time to meet with you.

If you contact the practice to make a complaint and the Practice Manager is not available, we will arrange a convenient time for them to contact you. We will ask you for brief details of your complaint so that the Complaints’ Manager can gather any useful information before contacting you. You will be given a copy of the notes made for the Practice Manager.

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If the matter requires a more immediate response, we will arrange for one of the Practice Principals to deal with it.

If your complaint is about your dental treatment or the fee charged, we will usually ask the dentist concerned to contact you, unless you do not want this.

We acknowledge all complaints in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within 3 working days.

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Investigating a complaint

We will offer to discuss the complaint with you and will ask how you would like to be kept informed of developments – by telephone, letters or e-mail. We will let you know how we will deal with your complaint and the likely time that the investigation will take to complete. If you do not wish to discuss the complaint further, we will still let you know the expected timescale for completing the investigation.

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We will investigate your complaint within 10 working days and, as far as reasonably practicable, will let you know how our investigation is progressing.

When we have completed our investigation, we will provide you with a full written report, unless you have told us that you do not wish for further communication. The report will explain how we considered the complaint, the conclusions we reached for each part of your complaint, details of any remedial action we have taken and whether further action is needed.

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Records

We keep proper and comprehensive records of any complaints that we receive and the action we have taken following investigation. We review these records regularly to ensure that we recognise our mistakes and take every opportunity to improve our service.

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If you are not satisfied

If your complaint was about your dental treatment and you are not satisfied with the result of our investigation, you can take up the matter with a relevant external organisation.

NHS England PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT (0300 311 22 33 or england.contactus@nhs.net)

If you’re not happy with the way your complaint was handled – either by the dental practice or NHS England – you may wish to contact the:

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank London SW1P 4QP (0345 015 4033 or www.ombudsman.org.uk).

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For complaints about private treatment:

Dental Complaints Service, 37 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8DQ

(020 8253 0800 or online at https://contactus.gdc-uk.org/dcs/Complaint/PrivatePatients).

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Data Protection Policy – Patients

 

Patient Records

This practice complies with the Data Protection Act 2018, Freedom of Information Act 2000, General Dental Council guidelines and will comply with the new GDPR 2018 regulations. This policy describes our procedures for ensuring that personal information about patients is processed fairly and lawfully.

Simon Clarke and 76dental are registered with The Information Commissioners Office.

Ami Campbell is the Data Protection Officer

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What personal data do we hold?

In order to provide you with a high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold personal information about you. This personal data comprises:

• Your past and current medical and dental condition; personal details such as your age, national insurance number/NHS number, address, telephone number, email address and your general medical practitioner.

• Radiographs, clinical photographs and study models.

• Information about the treatment that we have provided or propose to provide and its cost.

• Notes of conversations/incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept.

• Records of consent to treatment.

• Any correspondence relating to you with other health care professionals, for example in the hospital or community services.

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Why do we hold information about you?

We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about our patients in order to provide them with safe and appropriate dental care. We also need to process personal data about you in order to provide care under NHS arrangements and to ensure the proper management and administration of the NHS.

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How we process the data

We will process personal data that we hold about you in the following way:

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Retaining information

We will retain your dental records while you are a practice patient and after you cease to be a patient for at least 11 years or until the patient is 25, whichever is the longer.

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Security of information

Personal data about you is held in the practice’s computer system and/or in a manual filing system. The information is not accessible to the public and only authorised members of staff have access to it. Our computer system has secure audit trails and we back up information routinely.

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Disclosure of information

In order to provide proper and safe dental care, we may need to disclose personal information about you to:

• Your general medical practitioner

• The hospital or community dental services

• Other health professionals caring for you

• NHS payment authorities

• The Inland Revenue

• The Benefits Agency, where you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges

• Private dental schemes of which you are a member.

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Disclosure will take place on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, so that only those individuals/organisations who need to know in order to provide care to you and for the proper administration of Government (whose personnel are covered by strict confidentiality rules) will be given the information. Only that information that the recipient needs to know will be disclosed.

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In very limited circumstances or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with your health care. In all other situations, disclosure that is not covered by this Code of Practice will only occur when we have your specific consent.

Where possible you will be informed of these requests for disclosure.

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Access

You have the right of access to the data that we hold about you and to receive a copy. Access may be obtained in writing or by asking for a Subject Access Request form from reception. We will provide a copy of the record within one month of receipt of the request.

If you do not agree.

If you do not wish personal data that we hold about you to be disclosed or used in the way that is described in this Code of Practice, please discuss the matter with your dentist. You have the right to object, but this may affect our ability to provide you with dental care.

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Equality and Diversity Policy for Patients

 

Our vision is for 76dental to be a successful, caring and welcoming place for patients to receive their dental care and advice. We want to create a supportive and inclusive environment where our staff can reach their full potential and care is provided in partnership with our patients, without prejudice or discrimination. We are committed to creating a culture of respect and understand and recognise the value of individual diversity. This policy helps us to achieve this vision and avoid discrimination in any form ensuring that we treat people fairly and equally.

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Non-discrimination rights are protected by anti-discrimination legislation including the Equality Act 2010.

The aim of this policy is to remove any potential discrimination in the way that people with protected characteristics are cared for by the practice. This means that we will not treat you less favourably because of your age, a disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

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We will develop and support equality and diversity by tackling oral health inequalities through positive promotion and care. This includes

• Providing you with information in languages other than English, where required

• Having translation services available if you need this

• Taking reasonable steps to ensure that you can access our services if you have a disability

• Ensuring that the care we provide meets your needs

• Ensuring that we work closely with other medical and social services involved in your care.

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We will monitor the effectiveness of this policy and its impact on other relevant policies and practice.

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Concerns and comments

If you believe you have been treated in any way contrary to this policy or you have any comments on how we can ensure that it works better, please contact Ami-Jo Campbell at the practice. We will investigate your concerns and, where appropriate, take necessary action.

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Statement of Aims

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76dental is dedicated to providing dental care of a high standard and consistent quality for all our patients. All treatment offered and provided will be clinically justified, appropriate and carried out with proper regard to the dignity and autonomy of our patients.

This practice has the following quality assurance and safeguarding policies and procedures in place, further details are in the practice files:

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• Policy on complaints, complaints log and follow up. Patient information leaflets & details of how to access complaints policy including how to escalate or appeal.

• Patient satisfaction surveys and action as a result, Patient comment cards.

• Disability and Discrimination act audit.

• Policy on raising concern.

• Health and safety risk assessments, Fire risk assessment and training.

• Material data sheets and COSHH files.

• HTM 01-05 policies for decontamination and sterilisation with regular audits.

• Confidentiality policy signed by all staff and visitors.

• Completion of information governance toolkit.

• Staff training and training logs.

• Dr Simon Clarke and Dr Tom Huddleston are responsible for monitoring the quality assurance system within the practice.

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Zero Tolerance Policy

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Please note that 76dental operates a ZERO TOLERANCE policy and any patients who commit an act of violence against any member of staff or other patient, or behave such a way that any such person fears for their safety. Any such incidents will be reported to the police immediately, the patient’s treatment will be terminated and if applicable the Primary care Trust will be informed.

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Expected Standards of Behaviour

The 76dental practice has a duty to provide a safe and secure environment for staff, patients and visitors. Violent or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and decisive action will be taken to protect staff, patients and staff.

The following are examples of unacceptable behaviour on Practice Premises:

 

• Theft

• Threats or threatening behaviour

• Violence

• Excessive noise, eg. recurrent loud or intrusive conversation or shouting

• Threatening or abusive language involving swearing or offensive remarks

• Derogatory racial or sexual remarks

• Malicious allegations relating to members of staff, other patients or visitors

• Taking alcohol or drugs on practice premises

• Drug dealing on practice premises

• Wilful damage to practice property

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