Welcome to White Pearl Dental Practice
Set out below is some important information about how the practice operates which I hope you will find helpful.
Your dentist (Ahmed Rammahi, BDS)
I am the practice owner in the practice and I am responsible for making sure that you are happy with the dental care that you receive. On occasions, during holiday periods for example, it may be necessary for you to receive care from another colleague or locum dentist.
Making appointments
We always try to arrange appointments at a time convenient to our patients. For this reason, we have late evening sessions on Mondays. If you have made an appointment which you subsequently find you cannot keep, please give as much notice as possible so we can give the appointment to another patient who may need to see us at short notice. If you give us less than 24 hours’ notice a late cancellation charge of £20 per may be made, and maybe more based on the length of the booked appointment time.
Cancelling Appointments
Please inform us at least 24 hours before the appointment time, if you wish to cancel. If you fail to attend an appointment without notice you will automatically receive a charge of £1 per minute with a maximum charge of £50. Any subsequent appointment will also be removed from your appointment list.
Payment methods
It is our practice policy to give patients full information about the cost of their dental care before any treatment is undertaken. For treatment plans costing more than £20, a written estimate/treatment plan will be provided.
You may pay for your dental care by cash / credit card / debit card.
We try to make payments as straightforward as possible for our patients. Please refer to Payment Policy enclosed.
Emergencies
If you find that you have a dental emergency during normal surgery hours you should contact the practice for advice. We will make arrangements for you to be seen as quickly as possible. If the emergency occurs when the practice is closed, details of who to call will be given by the answer machine. We will ensure that, where appropriate, you are seen as quickly as possible.
I will of course do my best to provide you with a high standard of dental care and service. If you feel that you have cause for complaint, I would encourage you to raise it with Practice Management. We have a complaints procedure which aims to resolve any problems to our patients’ complete satisfaction.
I hope that you are pleased with the dental care and service which we will provide for you. If you have any queries about the content of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Ahmed Rammahi
Dentist and Principle of White Pearl Dental Practice
PRACTICE PAYMENT POLICY
- It is our practice policy to give patients full information about the cost of their dental work before any treatment is undertaken. An explanation of NHS charges and how we calculate our private fees can be explained by your dentist. If you need more information please contact reception.
- A written estimate and treatment plan will be provided for all dental treatment.
- We offer patients a range of payment options, depending on their needs.
- You may pay for your dental care by cash / credit card /debit card. Patients are also allowed to join any insurance scheme which will cover NHS charges or Private treatment. Currently, we do not accept Denplan scheme. Please ask our receptionist for further information.
- We try to make payment as straightforward as possible
- Payment has to be made either before or on the day of completion of treatment and not the whole course of treatment. A course of treatment may contain more than one appointment. If you have more than one appointment and you have an outstanding account, you will not be seen until the account is paid. We reserve the right to cancel all further appointments if payment is not paid.
- If the account is not paid after 48hours you will incur an administration and a late penalty charge. This will be added on every week until the account is cleared. During this period you will be receiving letters to inform you as to what is happening.
- If you receive more than 2 letters of warning, then you will be deregistered unless full outstanding amount is paid.
REFUNDS
We aim to provide the highest quality of NHS and private dental care and services to our patients. Occasionally, however, patients are not happy with the result or the treatment may need to be redone.
We therefore make the following refunds for treatments:
- A crown, bridge or veneer needing to be replaced within a year of placement, a full refund will be given.
- If the patient is still dissatisfied with a denture after necessary adjustments have been made a full refund will be made on the condition that the dentures are returned to the practice.
PRACTICE CODE OF GOOD PRACTICE
In our practice we
- Justify the trust our patients have placed in us
- Listen to patients’ views and learn from them
- Communicate with patients in a courteous, friendly, professional manner
- Provide patients with the standard of care that we would expect to receive ourselves
- Make sure that patients receive full information about our services, their treatment and its cost
- Provide advice and treatment outside normal surgery hours where necessary
- Stand by the promises we make
- Refer patients for further professional advice and treatment where appropriate
- Are committed to ensuring that we keep our professional skills and knowledge up-to-date
In our practice we will
- At all times respect our patients’ confidentiality
- Ensure that patients should have to wait no longer than 15 minutes to be seen
- Manage our appointments system so that treatment appointments are booked no more than 4 weeks ahead
- Deal with every telephone call promptly – callers will not be asked to ‘hold’ without first finding out why the call has been made
- Deal with correspondence within five days of receipt
- Provide patients with a treatment plan and estimate of costs for each new course of treatment. No treatment will be undertaken without the patient’s full and specific consent
- Make patients aware of our policy for collecting fees. Requests for payment will always be made courteously
- Make the practice policy for dealing with complaints known to patients. All complaints will be treated sympathetically and according to the agreed procedures.
- Provide the highest standards of infection control
- Provide any emergency treatment required during practice hours as soon as is reasonably practicable. Out of hours, an emergency rota will operate and details will be displayed at the entrance to the practice and recorded on the telephone answering machine. This information will be correct at all times.
In return, we would like you to
- Participate in your dental treatment, particularly any advice about prevention and diet that we have asked you to continue at home
- Arrive on time for your appointment. Please give the practice at least 24 hours notice if you are unable to keep your appointment. [We may charge for missed appointments where we have not been notified, we may need to review future provision of treatment for you at the practice]
- Treat our staff courteously; they will do their best to help meet your needs
PATIENT COMPLAINTS
In this practice we take complaints very seriously indeed and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased 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 these objectives.
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 customers’ concerns in a caring and sensitive way.
- The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is the Practice Manager.
- 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 manager immediately. If the practice manager is not available at the time, then the patient will be told when they will be able to talk to Ahmed Rammahi, the dentist and arrangements will be made for this to happen. The member of staff will take brief details of the complaint and pass them on. If we cannot arrange this within a reasonable period or if the patient does not wish to wait to discuss the matter, arrangements will be made for someone else to deal with it.
- If the patient complains in writing the letter will be passed on immediately to the Practice Manager.
- 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 patient’s complaint in writing and enclose a copy of this code of practice as soon as possible, normally within three working days. We will seek to investigate the complaint within ten working days of receipt to give an explanation of the 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 reasons for the delay and a 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:
- The Dental Complaints Service (08456 120 540) for complaints about private treatment
- The General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1M 8DQ (the dentists’ registration body)
- Primary Care Organisation [include address] for complaints about NHS treatment
- The Healthcare Commission, Finsbury Tower, 103-105 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TG (www.healthcarecommission.org.uk)
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
NHS Treatment
NHS treatment provides many options to help you maintain and improve your dental health. The treatments available are:
- Free 6 monthly exam
- Scale and polish
- Complex periodontal (gum) treatment
- Fillings (white composite for front teeth and metal amalgam for back teeth)
- Crowns (white for front teeth) and bridges
- Veneers
- Dentures
- And any other treatment to improve your health
Private Treatment
With the private option, you increase choice of materials used in dentistry. These treatments include:
- White fillings for all teeth
- Veneers
- Crowns and bridges
- Implants
- Cosmetic Dentistry
- Tooth Whitening
- And many more
We also hope to sell many types of tooth brushes and products to help improve your dental health.