Lessons learnt from complaints are brought to team meetings for shared learning and continuous quality improvement. Feedback analysis is a routine critical thinking exercise in which positive and negative comments are discussed in a ‘safe’ (blame free) environment with a clear emphasis on:

• Team learning from good and bad feedback
• Identifying solutions g. new procedures, personal/professional development
• Implementing a change in practice

Root cause analysis of complaints generally identifies areas for improvement in 3 broad categories:

• Place – improve environment, improve access, improve image
• People – improve interactions and inter-personal relationship building with better verbal and non-verbal communication skills; improve clinical care or customer care with training
• Processes – improve transactions with more effective and efficient management e.g. of appointments, waiting times, uptake or progression of care plans, working with laboratories, referrals, recalls, teamwork, audits

Training in complaints handling is a CORE Continuing Professional Development requirement as part of the 5-yearly re-certification cycle for all General Dental Council registrants, and all registrants must produce certificates of verifiable training to demonstrate compliance with the current recommended training requirements

Client Focus

Our relationship with clients is key to our success, and it is a team wide responsibility to exceed patient expectations by providing a safe, caring, responsive, effective and well led service.

Our procedure for making a complaint:

• is outlined on the clinic website
• is clearly written in plain language and can be made available in other formats if needed
• is easy for patients to understand and follow
• supports team members to investigate complaints in a full and fair way, deal with complaints promptly and efficiently and share learning to improve services
• explains the possible outcomes
• respects clients’ confidentiality

Monitoring

In order to ensure our services are safe, efficient and effective, team members are also involved in our quality monitoring and improvement processes including:

• Complaints audits to monitor individual performance in handling complaints and to identify any areas that need to be improved
• Patient satisfaction surveys
• Routine feedback/incident/significant event analysis (SEA)

 Responsibilities and accountabilities

The registered provider for the clinic is Rosie Sutton, whose key responsibilities are to ensure that all aspects of this policy are complied with. The day to day responsibilities for providing leadership and guidance for staff and overseeing implementation of this policy will be also undertaken by Rosie Sutton. Questions about this policy or associated procedures should be raised with either of the above.

Approval

This policy has been approved by the undersigned and will be reviewed on an annual basis.

Name: Rosie Sutton	Date approved: 3/8/2021
Position: Director	Last reviewed on:           3/8/2022