We are committed to improving frontline complaint handling in the NHS. In support of that commitment we, along with other organisations from the dental and health sector, have contributed to the development of a profession-wide complaints handling initiative for the dental sector.
The initiative sets out six core principles for best-practice handling of feedback and complaints in the dental sector and includes downloadable materials for surgeries and patients. It was developed in response to research that showed that nearly a third of people who had considered complaining about dental services did not do so because it wasn’t clear how to bring a complaint.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Rob Behrens said:
'The initiative announced today by the dental sector is an important move towards improving frontline complaint handling at a local level. It is far better for service-users to have complaints resolved locally and ensures that organisations learn from mistakes and services are improved more quickly.
It is encouraging to see a whole sector, both NHS and independent providers, unite to develop such an initiative. We are keen to build on this work to develop similar tools to improve frontline complaint handling and improve the experience of those that complain when things go wrong.'