Complaints

Question 1

What enables a clinical negligence claim to be successful?

Answer 1

The defendant (dental professional) owed the patient a duty of care
There was a breach in duty
The breach of duty caused harm
Avoidable harm resulted

Question 2

What are the 6 core princples of complaint handling best practice GDC?

Answer 2

1. All of your feedback is important to us
   
   2. We want to make it east for you to raise a concern or complain, if you need to
   3. We follow a complaints procedure and keep you informed
   4. We will try to answer all your questions and any concerns you raise
   5. We want you to have a positive experience of making a complaint
2. Your feedback helps us improve our service

Question 3

Examples of high-risk complaints

Answer 3

One that involves death or terminal illness
Involves serious service failure for example major delays in providing or repeated failures to provide a service
Ones that generate a significant and ongoing press interest
Ones that pose a serious risk to an organisation’s operations

Question 4

What is stage one of NHS complaint handling procedure and what does it involve?

Answer 4

Early resolution
Must be carried out within 5 days but likely done much sooner in practice - can be done f2f discussion as to why something has happened, apology, explain where possible this will be avoided in the future
Make sure the patient feels valued and we will take complaint on board to improve in the future

Question 5

When can you get an extension to the first stage of NHS complaint handling?

Answer 5

Can get an extension of a further 5 days in exceptional circumstances

Question 6

What is stage 2 of NHS complaint handling and when might a complaint need to be escalated to this stage?

Answer 6

Investigation stage
Not all complaints are suitable for early resolution and may skip step 1 and go straight to this
Or when patient is unsatisfied with stage 1 resolution

Question 7

What happens after local resolution fails for NHS patient (step 3)?

Answer 7

External resolution
Patient can either go to the SPSO or the GDC directly

Question 8

How long does a patient have to raise a complaint after incident?

Answer 8

12 months

Question 9

Who deals with complaints for private patients?

Answer 9

The dental complaints service (DCS)

Question 10

What happens stage 2 and stage 3 private complaints?

Answer 10

Stage 2 - DCS works with patient and dentist to try and reach a resolution

Stage 3 - DCS can arrange a panel of 2 lay members and a dental professional to hear the case, who make a recommednation in order to resolve the complaint