What action NHS boards must take in response to complaints from dental patients.

In accordance with the Patient Rights (Feedback, Comments, Concerns and Complaints) (Scotland) Directions 2012, NHS boards must ensure that their service providers, including general dental practitioners, submit quarterly reports on complaints. These reports must summarise the key themes of the complaints received and the action that has been taken or will be taken to improve services as a consequence. NHS boards must review these reports with a view to identifying any area of concern and whether any further action is required in order to improve the exercise of their own or their service providers’ functions.
At the end of each year, NHS boards must publish a report which summarises the quarterly complaints reports they have prepared and required their service providers to prepare. Boards are also required to submit information on complaints to the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland to allow the collation and publication of national complaints statistics.
Reviewing complaints locally enables appropriate improvements to be made for the benefit the patients of each NHS board. However, when complaints of a particularly serious nature arise through this process, it is open to boards to raise such concerns with the General Dental Council (GDC) for investigation in the interests of wider patient safety. The GDC is the independent UK regulator of the dental team, which sets minimum standards for education, training and professional practice, and has statutory powers to take action when these standards are not met, up to and including removing the right to practise in the UK.