Haywards Heath Practice Policy

• If you are in receipt of state benefits please make sure you bring your proof in at every new course of treatment. This is a legal requirement.
• The text message service we provide is an extra prompt out of courtesy of the practice. We cannot be held responsible if reminders are not received so please do not rely on them.
• Please make sure your mobile phone is switched off at all times whilst you are in the practice.
• Out of courtesy for other patients please do not allow your children to stand on the furniture.
• Due to high demand of NHS spaces it is important for you to attend regular appointments. If you are an NHS patient and have not been seen at the practice for 18 months or more you will not be offered any further NHS appointments. We aim to send reminders but it is your responsibility to attend within the 18 months.
• Please give us at least 24 hours notice if you are unable to attend your appointment. Failure to do so may result in a discretionary charge (approximately £1/minute). If you fail to attend or cancel with short notice on two occasions we may not offer any further appointments
• We require a £30 deposit for all appointments with our Hygienists, payable at the time of booking. If you fail to attend the appointment, or cancel with less than 24 hours notice, you may lose your deposit.

The practice is committed to providing a high standard of treatment and service to its patients. To achieve this goal it is important that treatment fees are collected efficiently.

All patients are provided with a treatment plan and estimate before the treatment commences which has details of the payment terms and the fees payable for treatment.

To avoid unnecessary costs or inefficiency fees are collected before each treatment plan has been completed, with the fees payable as treatment progresses, with the full balance due before the final appointment.

In the eventuality that fees are outstanding at the end of the treatment plan, the balance is collected at the last visit of the course of treatment.

If there are fees outstanding after the last visit, the practice will write to or telephone the patient to request payment. Reasonable steps will be taken to collect outstanding fees before a third party agent is instructed or legal action is initiated. If a third party is instructed to recover an outstanding fee, the third party collection fees will be added to the final owed balance.

If the patient has a complaint about the treatment provided, this is taken very seriously and will be fully taken into account.
The detailed procedure for collecting fees is in Patient Accounts and Debt Management (M 212).

Our Safeguarding Statement:
Dentalessence is committed to complying with legislation and statutory guidance to protect children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect.
Our practice has an effective process for identifying and responding appropriately to signs and allegations of abuse.
The practices have appointed their practice manager as the Practice Safeguarding Lead for children and adults.
All team members are trained to recognise signs of abuse in children and vulnerable adults.

Policy Statement
This policy applies to all persons working for us or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, Labs and suppliers. Dentalessence strictly prohibits the use of modern slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chain.
We have and will continue to be committed to implementing systems and controls aimed at ensuring that modern slavery is not taking place anywhere within our organisation or in any of our supply chains.

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Modern Slavery is a term used to encompass slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour, bonded and child labour and human trafficking.

Human trafficking is where a person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person with a view to that person being exploited. Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights.

Commitments
At dentalessence we expect everyone working with us or on our behalf to support and uphold the following measures to safeguard against modern slavery:

• We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery in our practice and our supply chains.
• The prevention, detection and reporting of modern slavery in any part of our practice or supply chain is the responsibility of all employees. Employees must not engage in, facilitate or fail to report any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of this policy.
• Consistent with our risk based approach we may require: employment and recruitment agencies and other third parties supplying workers to our organisation to confirm their compliance with our Code of Conduct
• If we find that other individuals or organisations working on our behalf have breached this policy we will ensure that we take appropriate action. This may range from considering the possibility of breaches being remediated and whether that might represent the best outcome for those individuals impacted by the breach to terminating such relationships.

In this practice we take complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all our patients are happy with their experience of our service. When patients complain they are dealt with courteously and promptly so that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible. This procedure is based on the objectives below.

Our aim is to react to complaints in the way in which we would want our complaint about a service to be handled. We learn from every mistake that we make and we respond to patients concerns in a caring and sensitive way.

• The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is the Practice Administrator.
• If a patient complains on the telephone or at the reception desk, we will listen to their complaint and offer to refer him or her to the Practice Administrator as soon as possible. If the matter cannot be resolved the member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on to the Practice Administrator.
• If the patient complains in writing the letter will be passed on immediately to the Practice Administrator.
• If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to the dentist, unless the patient does not want this to happen.
• We will acknowledge the patients complaint in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within 3 working days from date of receipt by first class post. We will seek to investigate the complaint within 10 working days of receipt to give an explanation of circumstances which led to the complaint. If the patient does not wish to meet us, then we will attempt to talk to them on the telephone. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within ten working days we will notify the patient, giving explanation for the delay and the likely period within which the investigation will be completed.
• We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.
• Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received.

If patients are not satisfied with the result of our procedure then a complaint may be made to one of the following:

For NHS patients: NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch B97 9PT. Telephone 0300 311 22 33

For private patients: The Dental Complaints Service, 37 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8DQ. Telephone 0208 253 0800