Balmoor Dental Surgeries, Committed to Care


Lorna Bateman Group Manager	Emma Strachan Group Manager (assistant)

If you have any suggestions as to how we might further improve the service we offer to our patients, then please email your comments to either of our practice managers by clicking on their photographs above.

The BDS group welcomes complaints from our patients since we recognise that such contact affords an opportunity to identify and address any aspect of the service we provide which requires improvement: We wish to learn from any mistakes and promise to respond promptly to any concerns in a caring, courteous and sensitive way.

The complaints procedure we operate adheres to nationally agreed criteria, and operates regardless of whether the treatment was undertaken under NHS or private contract. We hope that most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly at the time they arise and with the person concerned. If however your problem can't be sorted out this way and you wish to make a complaint, we ask you to let us know as soon as possible - ideally within a matter of days, since this enables us to establish what happened more easily.

Complaints about the treatment you received should in the first instance be made to the dentist who normally sees you. Alternatively, you may ask for an appointment with a practice manager, who will discuss your concerns in person: We promise that every effort will be made to ensure that your concerns are dealt with promptly. It will help if you are as clear as possible about the nature of your complaint.

If it is not possible to make your complaint within a matter of days or at most a few weeks from the date when the problem arose, we ask that you let us have details of your complaint:

within 6 months of the incident that caused the problem; or
within 6 months of discovering that you have a problem, providing this is within 12 months of the incident.

When we receive a complaint we shall acknowledge it within 2 working days and aim to have looked into the matter it raises within 10 working days. We shall then be in a position to give you an explanation, or offer a meeting with those involved.

In investigating your complaint, we aim to:

find out what happened and what went wrong;
enable you to discuss the problem with those concerned, if you would like this;
ensure you receive an apology, where this is appropriate;
identify what we can do to make sure the problem doesn't happen again.

Please note that our practice group adheres strictly to the rules of patient confidentiality. Therefore, if you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we need to know that you have permission to do so. A note signed by the person concerned will be needed, unless they are incapable (because of physical or mental illness) of providing this.

If, following our 'in-house' investigation of your complaint, you are not completely satisfied with the result, you may seek an indepenent review from the Convenor of the Independent Review Panel, who can be contacted at:

c/o The Complaints Office
Grampian Health Board
Summerfield House
2 Eday Road
Aberdeen
AB15 6GF