Dental practice did not explain why it removed a patient from its list

What happened

Soon after a consultation with his Dental Practice, Mr Z had a letter from the Practice telling him that it was no longer willing to offer him treatment because of a breakdown in communication.

Mr Z had been happy with the treatment from his Practice so he complained and asked for a more detailed explanation of the reasons for his removal from the Practice. Although it had several opportunities to give Mr Z more detailed information, the Practice did not do so and simply repeated that there was a breakdown in the relationship.

Mr Z subsequently took his complaint to NHS England which, initially, did not uphold his complaint. After further correspondence, NHS England agreed to look into the complaint again and, after investigation, took the unusual step of reversing its previous decision. It upheld the complaint on the basis of poor complaint handling, noting that it had taken the Practice some significant time to give NHS England the information and explanations that Mr Z sought. NHS England recommended the Practice apologise to Mr Z and make a financial remedy of £500.

Mr Z subsequently contacted us when he received no contact from the Practice to suggest that it would comply with NHS England's recommendations.

What we found

The Practice followed the requirements of its contract in issuing Mr Z with a notice of his removal from its list. The Practice was also within its rights to request payment for treatment in advance. Equally, although Practice staff statements about Mr Z's alleged inappropriate behaviour were not written until some eight to nine months after the alleged incidents, we could not challenge these and could not uphold the part of the complaint that related to Mr Z's removal from the Practice's list.

However, the Practice did not follow its own internal process for dealing with incidents where the patient/Practice relationship was in danger of irrevocable breakdown. The Practice had not given Mr Z, in its complaint response, the more detailed reasons that he wanted for his removal from the Practice list. It had the opportunity to do so on a number of occasions.

This was a failing by the Practice that caused Mr Z distress in seeking the explanations he wanted. He had had to escalate his complaint to NHS England, which was inconvenient.

Putting it right

The Practice apologised to Mr Z for the distress caused by these failings and paid him £250.